Hoshiarpur, July 17
With the arrest of Jatinder Kumar, alias Tik, resident of Kalamanjh, Mukerian, the district police today claimed to have solved the blind murder case of Naresh Kumar of the same village, who succumbed to his injuries at the DMC, Ludhiana, following a murderous assault on him on December 21, 2010, near a sheller on the GT Road near Mukerian.

The SSP, Rakesh Aggarwal, told mediapersons here today that Naresh Kumar’s father Roop Lal told the police that his son, who was a mechanical engineer, reached Mukerian bus stand at about 10 pm on December 21, 2010, after appearing in an interview at Ludhiana and telephoned him to pick him up. When he reached near a rice sheller on the GT Road, he found his son lying in a pool of blood on the ground. When he asked him what had happened, his son replied that some persons brutally attacked him and thereafter he became unconscious. The assaulters took away the purse containing about Rs 4,000, mobile phone and a bag containing certificates of his son.

He first took his son to the Civil Hospital, Mukerian, and thereafter to the DMC, Ludhiana where he breathed his last. On his statement an FIR under Sections 302 and 34 of the IPC was registered at the Mukerian police station on December 23, 2010.

During investigation, Jatinder Kumar emerged as the main suspect. When police interrogated him, he revealed that on December 21 he along with his accomplices was going to his village from Mukerian bus stand. When they reached near a rice sheller, they saw a person (Naresh Kumar) alone. With the intention to loot him, he assaulted him (Naresh Kumar) on his head with a sickle, due to which he fell on the ground. After snatching the cash and valuables from him they fled. The police recovered the sickle used in the crime from him.

Jatinder Kumar was an addict and for purchasing drugs was committing thefts and robberies. He had confessed to his involvement in eight such crimes, said Rakesh Aggarwal.

Gurdaspur, July 17
Gurdaspur District Congress Committee president and former minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa asked Punjab DGP PS Gill to submit his resignation following his felicitation by a proclaimed offender at Moga on Friday.

In a press release, Randhawa said he had shot of telegrams to the President, Prime Minister, Union Home Minister and the Punjab Governor in which he has urged them to take action against the DGP. He added that the DGP, whose prime aim was to maintain law and order in the state, should not have attended the function in which he was honoured by a proclaimed offender.

Randhawa claimed that if the DGP was that much interested in joining politics he should immediately resign from his post. “First the DGP should put in his papers and only then he should test the political waters in Moga assembly segment. I also urge Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal to take action against the top cop for his misconduct.”

Randhawa added that he had also spoken to PPCC Chief and former Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh about the DGP’s “unlawful behaviour”. He added that Capt Amarinder Singh had assured him that strict action would be initiated against the DGP if the Congress returned to power in the next assembly elections.

Talwandi Chaudhrian, July 17
Villagers are up in arms against a private coloniser, who is blatantly flouting building norms in developing a housing colony in the periphery of this sleepy hamlet.

The issue was also raised in the village panchayat which passed a resolution on April 20 urging the coloniser to deal with the sewage in the colony itself and not discharge it into the village pond.

The issue between the villagers and the coloniser is that the pond is barely capable of accommodating the need of the village and would not be able to sustain the additional burden.

Moreover, the drain pipes of the village were of less capacity and remain chocked most of the time thus resulting in a great hardship to the villagers. Huge money has been spent to get it unclogged at regular intervals.

In the resolution, the panchayat brought the matter to the attention of the authorities that the coloniser should make his own arrangements and would not be allowed to “illegally share” the existing drain networks and the pond.

Simar Singh, sarpanch, said the coloniser was warned after the panchayat members passed a resolution in its house with full majority. But so far the coloniser has not made any alternative arrangements for sewerage disposal. “We will take necessary action if the coloniser goes ahead and uses our sewerage and drainage networks,” he warned.

A visit by The Tribune team revealed that there was no separate provision of sewerage treatment plant in the colony. The existing drainage network showed that it would have to be linked to the village drains only.

Karnail Singh, the coloniser, however, claimed that he was in the process of setting up his own sewerage treatment plant, but did not elaborate further.

Nakodar, July 17
Punjab Revenue Minister Ajit Singh Kohar inaugurated the computerised land record centre at Shahkot here today.

In his address, he said, 156 land record centres were to be computerised in the state, out of which 117 had already been computerised and work on the remaining 39 centres was expected to be completed by October this year.

He said a person seeking information of land record would have to just fill a simple form containing details about the land and within two to 10 minutes, complete details would be given to the seeker. He said it would also end the cumbersome manual process of finding records from old files.

He said farmers could have an easy access to the information pertaining to girdawari, mutation, jamabandi, fard, roznamcha and other land-related records of the Revenue Department on a nominal fee of Rs 20 per page. — OC

Hoshiarpur, July 17
The district police has busted an inter-district gang of robbers with the arrest of four of its members.

The SSP, Rakesh Aggarwal, told mediapersons here today that a police party, led by Inspector, Sadar police station, Lakhbir Singh last night raided the choe near Bassi Gulam Hussain on a tip-off and arrested four robbers while they were preparing to commit some big crime.

The arrested robbers were identified as Gang’s kingpin Jaswinder Singh, alias Kaka, Jatinder Singh, alias Lucky, alias Gajni, both of Bassi Hasat Khan, Sukhwinder Singh, alias Sukha, of Naru Nangal, and Naresh Kumar, alias Suresh Kumar, of Mal Majara. Their two accomplices, identified as Sarbjit Singh, alias Titu, of Naru Nangal, and Shaku Rana of Bahadurpur Bahian, managed to flee under the cover of darkness.

The police recovered a TVS motorcycle (PB 58G 9068), Bajaj Chetak scooter (PB 07G 7512), two mobile phones, dagger, sword, sickle-type handle of a hand pump, half-handle of the hand pump, sickle and Rs 25,000 from them.

A case under Sections 399 and 402 of the IPC and Sections 25, 54 and 59 of the Arms Act was registered against them at the Sadar police station.

During their preliminary interrogation, they revealed that they all were addicts and had been operating in Hoshiarpur, Nawanshahar and Kapurthala districts. They confessed to their involvement in eight cases of robberies. Besides, they also confessed to their involvement in a number of cases of cash and mobiles snatching.

Their modus operandi was that they snatched cash and other valuables from persons by brandishing sickles and swords.

The SSP said the kingpin of the gang, Jaswinder Singh, was a driver. Ten cases under various sections of the IPC and the Arms Act had been registered against him in various police stations of Hoshiarpur and Kapurthala districts. He was released on bail about two months ago.

Cases under various sections of the IPC and the Arms Act had also been registered against the other accused, said Rakesh Aggarwal.