Jalandhar, April 5
The search for greener pastures at foreign shores has cost a youth his hands and feet. Due to frostbite, doctors have amputated both hands and feet of Satnam Singh of Raipur Peerbaksh Wala village, near here, and this happened after he was allegedly forced by immigration agents to walk overnight on snow-capped mountains near the Iran-Turkey border.

Satnam, who has been operated upon at a local private hospital, alleged that the agents had promised to get him safely landed in Greece. “I gave Rs 7 lakh to the agents and they boarded me a flight for Greece on Janaury 31,” he alleged.

“However, instead of Greece, I was landed at Iran where I, along with nine Pakistani Punjabis, was detained in a small cellar for a few days in Tehran,” he alleged.

He further alleged that one night, the agents dropped all of them near the Iran-Turkey border and told them to cross the snow-covered border on foot. “They told us that a cab would be waiting for them at an hour-long distance across the border in the Turkish territory,” he added.

“However, there was no cab waiting for us. Two associates of the agents, who were with us, forced us to walk for over 15 hours with our legs and sometimes even abdomen deep in thick snow,” he alleged.

“They kept us at various places in Turkey. Later, on finding that arms and legs of four of us were gangrened, they threw us near a hospital at Istanbul. Our exit from Turkey was facilitated by a philanthropist, who got our news after it was highlighted by the Turkish media,” Satnam added.

The police has registered a case against the agents, Paramjeet Singh, Gurmeet Singh and Baldev Singh, under Sections 406, 420, 307 of the IPC and Section 24 of the Immigration Act.

Qadian, April 5
Qadian MLA Lakhbir Singh Lodhinangal today claimed that the Batala police hushed up a case pertaining to the confiscation of a large quantity of heroin allegedly under political pressure.

The issue is threatening to snowball into a major controversy with the MLA and the cops pointing fingers at each other. The MLA has also written letters to the Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and his Deputy Sukhbir Badal pointing out the “Incompetence of the Batala police”

It is pertinent to mention here that the Batala police confiscated 1 kg of opium at the Rangarh Nangal police station a few days ago and also came out with a press note to highlight its achievement. However, the MLA claimed simultaneously the Cops had also confiscated ‘three boxes of heroin’ from a Rajasthan based smuggler but later acting under ‘political pressure’, the cops hushed up the heroin seizure.

It is pertinent to mention here that Rangarh Nangal police station falls under the MLA’s assembly segment of Qadian.

Lodhinangal added that the heroin seizure was never made public on the insistence of DSP Dilbagh Singh and CIA Staff Sub Inspector Arvinder Singh.

However, Dilbagh Singh, when contacted, disclosed that he was at the spot when the contraband was confiscated but denied that there was any heroin. “When I learnt of the seizure, being a gazetted officer, I had to go to the spot and verify the details. However, the person caught never had any heroin and only 1 kg of opium was found in his possession. Later we detained the person for questioning,” claimed the DSP.

The Batala SSP Gurdeep Singh added that the MLA did not know the facts and was just playing to the gallery. “ I do not know why Lodhinangal is trying to demoralise the police force by issuing such vague statements. There was absolutely no heroin found from the possession of the smuggler.”

On the other hand, Lodhinangal claimed that the SSP had no knowledge of what his officers at the lower level did. The MLA said, “We should not bring the SSP into the picture. It is only the Batala CIA Sub-Inspector and DSP Dilbagh Singh who have to share the blame. They acted under the influence of a senior politician who was allegedly providing shelter to the smuggler. The Cops have arrested the courier of the drugs but I would like to know who were to be the real beneficiaries of the heroin. ”

Nawanshahr, April 5
In a bizarre incident, a woman disappeared from the local civil hospital minutes after giving birth to her son. As per the available information, a 20-year-old pregnant woman accompanied by a middle-aged woman came to the local civil hospital for delivery at about 7.30 am.

She introduced the middle-aged woman as her mother and got herself registered as Manpreet, wife of Amar Happy of Mirpur Lakha village, in hospital records.

The hospital staff immediately provided her requisite medical care and Dr Usha Kiran handled the delivery and a male child weighing 2.8 kg was born at about 8 am.

Later, in a dramatic way, the mother just after 15-20 minutes of delivery reportedly left the hospital.

Before leaving, she handed over the newborn to a woman lying at another bed in the hospital ward saying she is going to change clothes.

But, when she did not return, the woman informed the hospital staff.

The hospital staff informed the police about the incident.

City SHO Vinod Kumar said the police found the residential address provided by the woman as fake.

The child would be sent to an orphanage after completing the requisite formalities, he added.

Interestingly, Civil Surgeon ML Bansal came to know about the incident in the evening when the mediapersons rang him up for his version.

He immediately rushed to the Civil Hospital and was visibly perturbed over the issue that he was not informed about the incident. He said strict action would be taken against the errant hospital staff for not providing timely information.

However, the hospital staff has been providing due care to the abandoned child.

Kapurthala, April 5
Agitated over the inaction of the district police against an ASI, accused of removing turban of a Sikh, hundreds of protesters blocked the Talwandi Chaudhriya road in Sultanpur Lodhi sub-division for several hours on Tuesday.

The president of state Valmiki Majhabi Sikh Morcha, Mohinder Singh Hamira, alleged that the Sultanpur Lodhi ASI Gian Singh had removed the turban of nambardar Joginder Singh at a local hospital after a fight between two groups following the Indian victory over Pakistan in World Cup semifinal on March 30.

Reportedly in a drunken condition, the ASI not only removed Joginder Singh’s turban but also manhandled and abused him, he added.

Hamira said they had reported the matter the next day to Sultanpur Lodhi DSP and SHO but to no avail. Later they also brought the entire matter to the notice of Kapurthala SP HQ but no action was taken against the erring ASI, he added.

Following which, they blocked Talwandi Chaudhriya road for several hours but neither the DSP nor SDM came to listen to their grievances, he said. He demanded that the ASI be suspended and an FIR be registered against him for hurting religious sentiments on the lines of recent incident of turban removal at Mohali by two police officials.

Kapurthala SSP SS Mann said nobody had lodged any complaint with him in this regard. As and when he got any complaint, the matter would be inquired and action would be taken accordingly, he added.