The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Chandigarh Stories

COURTS

Motorcyclist’s death
HC orders reinvestigation
Asks Haryana DGP to nominate IPS officers for probe
Saurabh Malik
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 21
Two years after biker Gagandeep Singh’s journey ended before the destination in an accident near Kiran Cinema in Sector 22, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has minced no words to say that a police official has been protected and fair investigation has not been conducted.

Ordering reinvestigation after rapping the police on its knuckles, Justice Daya Chaudhary has asked the Haryana Director General of Police to nominate two IPS officers for investigations. Justice Chaudhary also fixed a three-month deadline for reinvestigating the case. The DGP has been asked to monitor the probe.

Justice Chaudhary also held that every effort has been made to protect the sub-inspector in the case, Jaspal Singh Bhullar. He was the in charge of the Sector 22 police post under which the accident took place. In his statement, Bhullar had claimed that two boys riding a motorcycle rashly had rammed into the car he was driving.

The damning observations by Justice Chaudhary came on the petition filed by the victim’s father Balwinder Singh. He had alleged the investigation had been carried out in a slipshod, clandestine and biased manner and the case was closed as “untraced”.

The petitioner had also stated that Gagandeep was killed when Bhullar was crossing the light while chasing some boys.

Justice Chaudhary asserted: “It is relevant to mention that in case Bhullar is fair on his part, he could not have said the matter not be transferred to an independent agency like the CBI, as the premier investigating agency is already burdened with crucial matters. It is a clear case where the investigation has not been conducted in a fair and impartial manner and every effort has been made to protect the respondent (Bhullar).”

Virtually reminding the investigating officer of his duties, Justice Chaudhary added: “The investigation officer should have recorded the statement of the injured as his job was to make the investigation in the right direction.” Bringing out the petitioner’s predicament, Justice Chaudhary added that the investigating agency filed an untraced report, but the petitioner was not even left with the option to file even a protest petition as he was not the complainant in the case.

“The investigating officer, so nominated, shall investigate the matter not only from the angle of rash and negligent driving of vehicle driven by the respondent, but also from the angle whether he has committed culpable homicide not amounting to murder,” Justice Chaudhary said.

cheque-bounce case
Ex-minister’s wife awarded jail sentence
Tribune News Service

Panchkula, July 21
The district courts here today awarded one and half years’ imprisonment to the wife of a former Haryana minister, Lahiri Singh, in a cheque-bounce case.

Judicial Magistrate Renu Rana also directed the accused to pay Rs 3 lakh in compensation to the complainant.

According to sources, Sector-20 resident Rajiv Verma had filed a complaint against Sector-16 resident Rupwati, whose husband is a former Haryana minister and presently runs a filling station in Sector 16, stating that she had obtained a loan of Rs 3 lakh from him in 2009.

Later, Rupwati returned the loan amount in the form of a cheque, which got bounced in the bank.

The complainant contacted Rupwati to get his amount back, but to no avail. Thereafter, he served a legal notice on the accused and finally lodged a complaint under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act.

Last month, the court had awarded imprisonment to Rupwati’s son Dinkar in connection with a cheque bounce case as well.

Her son had failed to return Rs 5 lakh to Sector-14 resident, Dinesh Chugh.

CRIME

Taxi driver attacked
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 21
A 28-year old taxi driver, Sumit Kumar, a resident of Sector 33, was attacked with sharp-edged weapons here this evening.

The incident took place in the Sector 33 market when Sumit was standing near his car.

The police said the assailants were known to Sumit and in his statement to the police, Sumit said he could identify them.

The injured taxi driver was rushed to the GMCH-32 and discharged after treatment. A case was registered at the Sector 34 police station.

Woman held for fraud
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 21
The police today arrested a Ludhiana-based woman in a case of housing society fraud. The case was registered last year.

The complainant, Ramesh Chand, had reported to the police that Rani Meera Sharm, a resident of Sector 37, along with her associates approached him and assured that she was a member of the Blood Donor Cooperative House Building Society, Chandigarh, and wanted to sell her dwelling unit. A deal was settled for Rs 3.48 lakh in December 1998 and the entire amount was paid to her.

However, when Ramesh approached the society, he found that Rani Meera Sharma was not its member and no dwelling unit was ever allotted to her.

During investigation, it was found that Rani Meera Sharma was a member of the society from October 1989 and paid Rs 9,500 as the membership fees. However, she never ever paid any instalment after that and was hence declared a defaulter.

The police today arrested Rani Meera Sharma from her residence in Urban Vihar, Ludhiana. She was produced before a court and was sent to 14-day judicial remand.

Two arrested for forgery
Tribune News Service

Panchkula, July 21
The local police has arrested two persons, including the director of Great Ocean Academy of Merchant Navy, Panchkula, for preparing a fake birth certificate of a candidate and helping the latter obtain a passport by using the certificate. The police arrested institute director Avinash Khanna and Mandeep Singh Rana, a resident of Khangesra village, Panchkula, whose fake birth certificate was prepared.

ASI Sushil Kumar said Rana had taken admission in Khanna’s institute for a merchant navy course in 2009.

However, to make money from Rana, Khanna told him that the dates mentioned in the birth and class X certificates did not match. Khanna allegedly arranged a fake birth certificate for Rana and later helped him obtain a passport using the fake certificate.

Khanna charged his commission for preparing the fake birth certificate along with the passport.

Later, the passport authorities found that the documents were fake and lodged a complaint with the Panchkula police. Finally, the Panchkula police arrested Khanna and Mandeep Rana. The two were today produced in a local court, which remanded them in 14-day judicial custody. The police said Rana had visited Dubai on the passport.

Woman murdered, body found in fields
Tribune News Service

Mohali, July 21
Sudesh Rani, a 37-year-old married woman of Tira village, near Mullanpur, was found murdered under mysterious circumstances near the village this morning.

To conceal her identity, the assailants had crushed her face, apparently with a rock.

Her body was found in a semi-naked condition in a ditch near the jungle area of the village.

According to the victim’s family, she had gone out to answer the nature’s call in the morning but failed to return home.

The family went out looking for her and found her bangles and mobile in the fields. Later, her body was found in a ditch.

She is survived by her husband and two sons, aged 19 years and 15 years. Her husband Krishan Kumar works as a carpenter.

The police said the exact picture would emerge once the autopsy report was released by the Civil Hospital, Kharar.

Kharar DSP SS Virk said a case of murder had been registered and the matter was being probed.

SPORTS

GMHS-26, St John’s-26 in soccer semifinals
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 21
GMHS-26, GMSSS-22, St John’s-26 and GMSSS-35 entered semifinals of the Pre-Nehru Hockey Tournament Under-14 (boys) and Pre-Suboroto Mukerjee Football Tournament being organised by the UT sports department here today.

In the first football match, GMHS-26 thrashed St Joseph-44 4-0. All goals were scored by Vijay in the 17th, 18th, 27th and 34th minutes.

The second match was no different, as GMSSS-22A beat GMSSS-10 2-0. Both goals were scored by Akash in the 11th and 32nd minutes.

In the third match, St John’s-26 beat St Kabir-26 2-0. St John’s Krishna scored both goals in the 18th and 32th minutes of the game.

The last match saw some keen contest as players of GMSSS-35 and St Xaviers’-44 foiled attempts of the opposite side to score.

The match was decided in the favour of the GMSSS-35 in a tie-breaker. They were able to score five times against four by Xt Xaviers’.

In the Pre-Nehru Hockey Tournament Under-17 (boys), DAVSSS-8 defeated GMSSS-44 3-0.

In the second match, SPS-41 blanked GMSSS-35-D 5-0. In the third match, GMSSS-22 beat Shishu Niketan-43 2-1. Shalinder and Shyam Thappa scored a goal each for GMSSS-22, while Aman scored the solitary goal for the losing Shishu Niketan team.