The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

	Man burns 7-yr-old stepson to death over succession fears PK Jaiswar/TNS Amritsar, May 6 In a shocking incident, a man burnt his seven-year-old stepson, Prabhdeep, to death in Jandiala Guru in Amritsar. Though the incident took place in December last year, it came to light today when the police caught the stepfather, identified as Paramjit Singh, after investigations. To mislead the police, Paramjit Singh had even filed a missing complaint. Throwing light on the incident, Manmohan Singh, SP (D) Amritsar rural police, said Paramjit tried to mislead the police by first filing a missing complaint on December 20 and then called the family from an unidentified number that boy has been kidnapped and demanded Rs two lakh as ransom. However, when the family members went to give the money, nobody turned up to the spot to take the money. The stepfather then called the police that the boy had died due to snake bite and said he had thrown the body outside the police station. He also called up his second wife and Prabhdeep’s mother Rajwant Kaur, who had gone to her parents’ home, and asked her to return. Meanwhile, the police located the spots from where the calls were made and during the investigations it came to light it was same person who was calling from different numbers. From the description given by the witnesses, the police’s suspicion fell on Paramjit Singh. The SP said during the interrogation, Paramjit admitted his crime and revealed that he threw his stepson in an iron furnace on December 20. About the cause, the police official said the accused did not want Parbhdeep to became successor of his property. Rajwant Kaur, who was shocked after the incident, demanded a severest of action against Parmajit Singh.
	Boy sodomised, 3 booked Amritsar, May 6 The police here booked three persons for allegedly sodomising a 12-year-old boy of Mandiala village, who used to work as a waiter in marriage palaces. Those booked are Nishan Singh, Inderjit Singh and Gurpreet Singh of same village. While no arrest has been made so far, A case under Sections 377, 506 and 34 of the IPC has been registered. The incident took place on April 28. But the case was registered only last evening when the boy narrated the incident to his family members, who immediately approached the police. The boy in his complaint stated that Nishan Singh took him to Shah Palace, situated on the Jhabal road, to work as a waiter and promised to give Rs 80 as wages. When the function at the palace finished, Nishan Singh asked him to go upstairs and bring a mat. He said the other two accused, were already present there. They pushed him to the ground and committed the crime one by one. When he raised an alarm, Uttam Singh of the palace saved him from their clutches. — TNS
	Riots’ victims welcome handing over of land Tribune News Service Amritsar, May 6 Victims of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots today welcomed the step of handing over of a land situated on the Tarn Taran road demarcated to rehabilitate the victims to the Shiromani Committee by Baba Makhan Singh, head of Bhai Mani Singh Taksal. They urged Avtar Singh, president of the SGPC, to use the land for the rehabilitation of the riots’ victims only. They said they would meet the SGPC president and Jathedar, Akal Takht, Gurbachan Singh in this regard. It is pertinent to mention here that Baba Makhan Singh had donated over four and half acres of land near Gurdwara Sangrana Sahib on the Amritsar-Tarn Taran road to the SGPC recently.
	Shiv Kumar Batalvi remembered Batala, May 6 The never-ending aura of noted Punjabi littérateur Shiv Kumar Batalvi once again came to the fore with two different organisations holding two separate functions in remembrance of the late poet who, over the years, had earned a name for himself by writing poetry of heightened passion, pathos, separation and lover’s agony. The first function, jointly organised by Punjab Sahitya Academy and Lok Likhari Sabha (Batala) and Shiv Kumar Batalvi Arts and Cultural Society, was held at RR Bawa DAV College on the occasion of Batalvi’s death anniversary. As many as 11 noted Punjabi poets were honoured by Gurbhajan Singh Gill, president of the Punjabi Sahitya Academy, Ludhiana, and Batala MLA Jagdeesh Sahni. Those felicitated included Surjit Pattar, Prof Ravinder Bhattal, Dr Lakhwinder Johal, Sukhwinder Kaur Amrit, Surjit Judge, Darshan Butter, Kavinder Chand, Biba Balwant, Anoop Virk and Harmeet Vidyarthi. If the first function, held at the R.R Bawa College’s auditorium, revolved more around Batalvi’s poetry and was aptly named a Kavi Darbar, the second one, organised by the Punjabi Sahitya Manch at the Batala Club, was more solemn in its planning and execution. The proceedings, which were presided over by Cabinet Minister Balbir Singh Bath, saw three poets- Gurbhajan Singh Gill, Satnam Singh Nijjar and Harbhajan Singh Mallikpuri- being honoured. — TNS
	Khurana’s arrest provides ammunition to Congress Deepkamal Kaur/TNS Jalandhar, May 6 With the opening up of a series of cases against the ruling SAD-BJP combine, the local Congress leaders are trying their best to utilise the opportunity by holding demonstrations, group meetings and planning rallies. The District Congress Committee (Urban) today burnt the effigy of the state government in front of the Congress Bhavan. DCC president Arun Walia said going by the seriousness of the cases in which BJP Chief Parliamentary Secretary Raj Khurana and two BJP senior ministers have been involved, the government had no moral right to continue to rule the state. Congress MP Mahinder Singh Kaypee said while the BJP leaders had been projecting a very clean image, skeletons have now started tumbling out of their cupboards. Former Congress minister Avtar Henry went a way ahead. “It has been a total jungle raj. While one BJP CPS has been caught taking bribe for land deals, another from the SAD is being convicted. The murder committed by the SAD MLA’s councillor nephew has also brought much disgrace to the government. MLA Bholath Sukhpal Khaira preferred training his guns against the Local Bodies Minister. “His has been the most corrupt department. I have known people who have had to a huge amount of money as cut to the top politicians and officials to get their CLU files cleared at the government level”, he alleged. Ex-MLA from Phagwara Joginder Singh Mann too has a tough stance, “As you sow so shall you reap. You already are aware of allegations of poisoning of his cousin by SAD MLA Mohan Lal. Now we have started hearing about involvement of Swarna Ram, his dad, and his PA in a land deal. I demand a thorough probe into the case”. The reports have shocked the BJP to its core. District party president Subhash Chander Sood today said the CBI was being used as a tool to defame the BJP in view of the coming assembly elections. He termed the case also involving minister Manoranjan Kalia as completely frivolous. The matter has even exposed the infighting within the party as a group of senior BJP leaders, who call themselves victims of Kalia, seemed rather upbeat over the issue. “Imagine how much he would have earned from bigger cities if he had managed to amass Rs 1.5 crore from a small town like Rajpura”, they confided.
	Crime File Murder cracked Our Correspondents Hoshiarpur, May 6 The police solved the blind murder case of a migrant labourer, Dhode Singh, a resident of Bihar, with the arrest of the killer, Kartike (19) of Ranchi, near Shergarh here on Thursday. The crime happened nine months ago. SSP Rakesh Aggarwal said Dhode Singh was found murdered at a electric motor room in the farm of Amrik Singh at Shergarh on the periphery of the town on the morning of August 4, 2010. His body was found lying in a pool of blood in his bed. Marks of a sharp-edged weapon were found on the chin of the deceased. A special investigation team, under the supervision of SP (D) Randhir Singh Uppal and led by DSP (D) Harinder Pal Singh Parmar and SHO of the Sadar police station Lakhvir Singh, was constituted to trace out the case and arrest the culprit. On the information regarding the movement of the murderer of Dhode Singh, the police laid a trap and arrested Kartike, alias Sunil Kumar, in the Shergarh area. During interrogation Kartike confessed to the killing of Dhode Singh. Kartike was also a migrant labourer and was working in the fields along with the deceased. He was living at the tubewell motor room along with Dhode Singh at Shergarh. He left the job for some reasons and joined the same after one and a half months later. On the fateful night, some dispute arose between them and Kartike assaulted Dhode Singh with a sickle, due to which he died. After committing crime, Kartike left Hoshiarpur and started doing labour works at Ropar and Jalandhar. Kartike had again come to earn livelihood to Hoshiarpur and was nabbed by the police. Three booked Hoshiarpur: On the complaint of Nittu Kashyap, daughter of Jaswinder Kumar of Saila Khurd, the Mahilpur police has booked Harwinder Singh, his brother Harpinder Singh and their mother Balbir Kaur of the same village under Sections 420, 376, 494, 495, 506, 406, 341 and 120-B of the IPC. According to police sources, Nittu Kashyap stated that she was doing a computer course where she developed relations with Harwinder Singh. Both of them decided to get married. But Harwinder Singh went to Australia and after sometime he came to Saila Khurd. Both got married in 2009. After sometime she came to know that Harwinder Singh was already married. When she asked Harwinder Singh about it, he admitted to being already married and told her to marry his brother Harpinder Singh. He told her that after marriage all of them would go to Australia where he would divorce his first wife and Harpinder would divorce her. Then Harpinder Singh would live with his first wife and he would join her. Meanwhile, she delivered a baby. But the family members refused to own her and her child. Rum seized Hoshiarpur: On a tip-off, the Chabbewal police raided a shop in the market of Adda Chabbewal and seized 140 cases (1,680 bottles) of rum today. According to DSP (S) Harinder Pal Singh, a case under Sections 61, 1 and 14 of the Excise Act was registered against Harish Kumar, alias Vicky Chadha, in this connection at Chabbewal police station. 3 agents booked Hoshiarpur: Three travel agents have duped three persons of Rs 23,55,400 in the name of sending them abroad. In his complaint, Pankaj Kumar of Bahadurpur said that Varinder Puri and his brother Amit Puri of the local Preet Nagar promised him and his friend Vikas Chand of Mehngrowal of sending them to Italy. He alleged that they took Rs 16 lakh for the purpose. In another case, on the complaint of Sauki Singh of Marula, the police has booked Ibrahim Dainese of Sandhwal for allegedly taking Rs 7,55,400 from him for sending him abroad. Cases under Sections 406 and 420 of the IPC have been registered. 5 get life term Nawanshahr: The District and Sessions Judge, G.S. Sran, has sentenced five persons, Kuldip Singh, Bhinda, Harbhajan Singh, Gurdip Kaur and Dharmi of Shahabpur village, to life imprisonment in the murder case of Harmesh Lal of Bhajlan village in 2008. The case under Sections 302, 148 and 149 of the IPC was registered at Sadar police station here on the basis of the statement of Manjit Kaur, sister of the victim, in which she had stated that the accused had beaten her brother to death.