Jalandhar, May 27
Facing the opposition onslaught, the state government today cancelled the deal involving the sale of a prime land worth Rs 400 crore allotted to the Apeejay Education Society at a throwaway price in an allegedly scandalous manner.

The land in question had been earlier given by the Jalandhar Improvement Trust on lease for 99 years for a token money of Re 1 per annum. However, a few weeks ago, the leased-out land was allotted to the society, running a school and a college, on freehold basis by charging about Rs 29.53 crore, whereas the market price of the land is in the range of Rs 400 crore, because of its location in the heart of the city.

Immediately after the allotment, a controversy had erupted and almost all opposition parties, including the Congress, led by Capt Amarinder Singh, had termed the deal a big scandal involving crores of rupees.

Official sources disclosed here today that the state government had directed the Jalandhar Improvement Trust to cancel all the land deals through which the lease was converted into a permanent allotment of the land and the payment received by the part concerned be returned. Similar letters have been sent to all other Improvement Trusts and local bodies concerned.

The fact that the order, signed by the Additional Secretary, is vague and does not specifically mention about the land allotted to the Apeejay society. Eyebrows have been raised about the issuance of such a vague order. Was the Local Bodies Department directed by some influential persons not to issue a specific order in this regard?

The Tribune was the first English daily to have highlighted the matter regarding the change of deed of the prime land without any open auction in a news item that appeared on April 29. The Apeejay authorities had even made 25 per cent payment to the tune of Rs 7.34 crore and had agreed to pay up the remaining amount in instalments.

The land measuring 42 kanal, 14 marla and 37 sq feet, where Apeejay School and Apeejay College of Fine Arts stand now, had been originally allotted by the JIT to Rajeshwari Sangeet Academy on June 19, 1963, from its 112.8 acre New Jawahar Nagar scheme. The land was meant to be used for imparting vocal, instrumental and allied knowledge of music.

RTI applicants Ajay Sehgal, Sanjay Sehgal and Rajinder Bhatia had highlighted the alleged violations in the lease deed, non-penalisation of the society by the trust and then favouring the society by allotting them the land at a throwaway price.

Baljit Singh Neelamahal, Chairperson, Jalandhar Improvement Trust, when contacted said, “I got a call from the office regarding having received the orders, but I am yet to see the copy myself.”

Amritsar, May 27
The Sadar police has booked four persons - two girls and their two boyfriends - for allegedly kidnapping and raping a friend of the girls.A resident of Pandoran Gali, Sultanwind Road, the victim in her complaint lodged with the police alleged that her two friends called her to see them at the bus stand. She said when she reached there she found them with their two boyfriends, who were sitting in a car.

She said after a lot of insisting by her friends she sat in the car. She said her two friends made her drink a cold drink mixed with alcohol. She alleged that they took her to a hotel room, where the two boys raped her. She said they also threatened her with dire consequences if she tell this to anyone.

Dinesh Singh, SHO, Sadar police station, said the police had registered a case under Sections 363, 366, 376 and 34 of the IPC. He said no arrest had been made so far and the matter was under investigation.

Tarn Taran, May 27
The police has claimed to solved the blind murder case in which the police had recovered the unidentified decomposed body of a man a month back from the outskirts of the town.

The body have been identified as that of Jagtar Singh (52) of Mannshedwala village in Batala. His mistress Harjinder Kaur of Marrarhi village in Amritsar, and her cousin Lakhbir Singh of Leharke village in Amritsar have allegedly been held responsible for the murder and booked under Sections 302 and 201 of the IPC.

According to information here today, the deceased, Jagtar Singh, an employee with the Zila Parishad, was married with Ranjit Kaur in 1980, but had been living with Harjinder Kaur for the last more than 10 years.

Harjinder Kaur wanted to grab the property of Jagtar, so she in connivance with her cousin Lakhbir killed Jagtar and threw his body on the outskirts of the town.

The matter was brought to the notice of the police by Ranjit Kaur, the wife of the deceased. She came to know the facts on her visit to her in-laws house some days back.

The SSP, Preetpaul Singh Virk, said the accused were yet to be arrested.

Nakodar, May 27
An outbreak of gastroenteritis at Bathan village in Mehtpur has claimed its first victim.Sukhdev, an electrician by profession, breathed his last on late Thursday night.As many as 89 cases have been reported in the village. Seven fresh cases came to fore during door-to-door medical inspection of the villagers.

Medical teams, which swung into action on Monday, blamed contaminated water for the outbreak. The Rural Medical Officer of Nakodar, Sushant said medical teams found symptoms of diarrhea, vomiting and abdominal cramps in 89 such villagers, out of which six critical cases were admitted to hospitals.

Mehtpur Senior Medical Officer Shashi Ahloowalia said Sukhdev was admitted to a private hospital in Nakodar on Monday. He was discharged on Tuesday evening. But he didn’t take precautions afterwards and took part in the ‘chabeel’ organised by the villagers, added the officer.

“Last night, due to breathlessness, victim suffered cardiac attack and died on the spot,” she said.

Village’s only water supply source got contaminated after there were leakages in sewerage pipes.

Four medical teams today visited the affected village where doctors distributed 500 capsules and 4000 chlorine tablets for precautionary measures, she said. “They have also arranged for a private water tanker for the villagers and instructed them not to drink from any other water source in the village until water samples were cleared by the authorities,” she added.

She revealed that Sajan (16) and Vikey (20), condition of both stated to be critical, were admitted to private hospitals in Jalandhar and Phagwara and three were admitted to Mehtpur Civil Hospital.

Tarn Taran, May 27
Sukhninder Kaur (50), resident of Manochahal Kalan village, was killed, while her son and another relative were injured when the motorcycle they were riding on was hit by a car near Jamarai village, 25 km from here, late last evening.

A case under Sections 304A, 279, 427 and 338 of the IPC was registered against the driver of the car.

The injured were identified as Gurbhej Singh, son the deceased, and Charanjit Singh of Amritsar.

They were admitted to a Amritsar hospital where their condition was stated to be out of danger.

Phagwara: A labourer, Hira Lal, was electrocuted at a factory in nearby Sahni village on Friday. The labourer was electrocuted while switching on a fan. The body of the labourer was sent to the Civil Hospital for postmortem.

In another mishap, a local resident, Rajesh Kumar, was killed when he was hit by a vehicle near Chack Hakim village on Friday. The vehicle driver sped away after hitting Rajesh.

The police has registered a case.

Kotli Surat Malli (Gurdaspur), May 27
Newly appointed president of the Gurdaspur District Congress Committee Sukhjinder Randhawa fired a verbal volley against the district police saying that the cops were acting under the influence of ruling SAD-BJP politicians and were registering cases against Congress workers on totally frivolous grounds.

Randhawa was speaking at this village on the occasion of a heavily attended workers meeting of Sri Hargobindpur, Dera Baba Nanak and Fatehgarh Churian assembly segments. The meeting was to be chaired by former Chief Minister and PPCC chief Capt Amarinder Singh who, however, failed to attend the proceedings as his chopper could not take off from Chandigarh due to inclement weather conditions. Earlier, the PPCC chief was to address a similar meeting at Pathankot on May 25 but that gathering too was postponed sending the well laid out plans of Pathankot-based Congress leaders for a six.

Randhawa, who took command once word went out that Capt Amarinder give the function a skip, was particularly harsh on the top brass of the Gurdaspur police claiming that hundreds of false cases were registered against workers in this district. He added that when the Congress took over the reigns of the state government after the next assembly elections, the party would bring in an executive order to review all such cases.

Speaking about the high-handedness of the police, Randhawa cited the example of a close relative who recently went to pay obeisance at the Golden Temple in Amritsar. “However, on his return my relative, to his utter dismay, found that some Akali workers had grabbed his land.”