Fatehabad, July 29
The police today arrested six persons, including an inspector of the Food and Supplies Department, here for watering bags of wheat meant for supply to the poor under the PDS.

Raja Ram Bishnoi, an inspector of the department; Naresh Kumar, a security guard; and labourers Vinod, Hanuman, Rameshwar and Ajit were produced in a local court, which remanded them to police custody for a day for recovery of stolen bags of wheat.

The police said the accused had admitted having pilfered wheat from the storehouse before pouring water on wheat stock.

Meanwhile, the BJP human rights cell has taken up the issue with the NHRC.

In a letter written to the chairman of the NHRC, RP Malhotra, state convener of the Haryana unit of the cell, said the commission should take suo motu cognizance of the issue. Officials of the Food and Supplies Department were found watering bags of wheat stacked in a storehouse at Bighar Road in Fatehabad on Wednesday night.

Chandigarh, July 29
Ahead of the Hisar Lok Sabha byelection, the INLD finds itself on the backfoot following the framing of charges against party supremo Om Prakash Chautala and his elder son, Ajay Singh, in the JBT teachers recruitment case.

The charges have been framed by a Delhi-based CBI court in a case which dates back to 1999-2000 when the Chautalas were in power in the state. It was investigated by the CBI on the directions of the Supreme Court. The investigating agency had chargesheeted the Chautalas and others in connection with a scam relating to appointment of 3,206 junior basic teachers in the state.

Interestingly, the CBI found an IAS officer, Sanjiv Kumar, whom many consider a whistleblower, as much guilty in the case as the Chautalas. It was Sanjiv Kumar, who had moved the Supreme Court alleging harassment at the hands of the Chautalas because, he claimed, he had not obliged them in recruiting over 3,000 teachers of their choice.

Sanjiv Kumar had claimed that two lists of selected candidates were prepared. While one list was based on merit, the other was manipulated allegedly by the Chautalas. The officer claimed that instead of implementing the manipulated list, as desired by the Chautalas, he had implemented the one based on merit.

Besides the Chautalas and Sanjiv Kumar, the CBI also indicted another IAS officer, Vidya Dhar, and many officials of the Education Department.

Special CBI Judge Vinod Kumar framed charges for offences of cheating, forgery, fabricating documents and abuse of official position against the accused. Now he would record the statements of prosecution witnesses on a day-to-day basis from August 19.

The Haryana Congress has decided to go after the INLD after the framing of the charges against its leadership. These days the INLD is running a campaign against the alleged corrupt deeds of the Congress government in the state. Now it is the turn of the Congress to retaliate.

Haryana Congress president Phool Chand Mullana today demanded that the father-son duo should quit politics in view of the charges framed against them by the CBI court. He said the Chautalas had also been hauled up by the law in a case of having assets disproportionate to their known sources of income.

The Congress president directed all DCC presidents to organise demonstrations on August 1 and submit memoranda to the Deputy Commissioners concerned, demanding resignation of the Chautalas from politics. The district units have also been directed to burn effigies of the two INLD leaders.

Panchkula, July 29
The CBI received yet another blow in its investigation into the kidney racket of Gurgaon that rocked the nation in 2008, with one more prosecution witness turning hostile in a special CBI court here today. Till now, five witnesses have turned hostile.

Prosecution witness Daleep, who had also lost his kidney in the case, had failed to identify the main accused, Dr Amit Kumar and other accused present in the court. He said he had never seen Amit and other accused.

Daleep, a resident of Meerut, said the CBI had put pressure on him and thereafter, he had recorded his earlier statement, in which he had deposed against the accused.

The CBI court had framed charges against Dr Amit, his brother Jeevan Kumar, Dr Krishan, laboratory technician Manoj, middlemen Giyasuddin and Jagdish, nurse Linda, Dr Saraj and Dr Upender.

The racket was busted on January 24, 2008, after a joint team of the Uttar Pradesh and Gurgaon police raided a house in Sector 22 of Gurgaon. Dr Amit, who was later nabbed from Nepal, and his accomplices were allegedly operating on the poor and transplanting their kidneys into NRI clients.

The CBI, in its chargesheet filed on April 29, 2008, had stated that the accused lured people to a private hospital in Gurgaon and other places, where their kidneys were removed and sold at higher prices to patients, including those from abroad.

Cases for removing kidneys were also registered against Dr Amit and Jeevan in Rajasthan, Maharashtra and other states.

Kaithal, July 29
Tension prevailed in the town today as residents blocked road and rail traffic in protest against yesterday’s incident in which three persons were killed.

Three persons riding a motorcycle were killed after being hit by two maxicabs, allegedly involved in a race on the Railway Overbridge. An irate mob later burnt the two maxicabs.

The agitated crowd did not allow movement of the Narwana-Kurukshetra train, which had arrived at the Kaithal railway station from Narwana.

The authorities later suspended rail traffic on this section. Kalayat MLA Ram Pal Majra and former MLA from Kaithal, Leela Ram, were among those who sat on dharna.

Earlier, the protesters staged a dharna on the flyover for several hours.

They were demanding suspension of DSP (HQ) Ravinder Tomar, a passage on the railway crossing for two-wheelers and pedestrians, a compensation of Rs 10 lakh each for next of the kin of the deceased, jobs for at least one member of the families of the deceased and ban on plying of maxicabs in the town.

Hisar, July 29
The government will provide spades and pans to all panchayats for use by villagers engaged as labourers under the MNREGA scheme, said Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda while addressing beneficiaries of the scheme at an awareness camp here today.

Hooda said Haryana had spent Rs 592 crore under this scheme so far. As many as 7.29 lakh families had been provided employment at their doorstep. Haryana was paying the highest daily wages of Rs 179 in the country. Each and every family that desired to gain employment under this scheme had been given work in their villages. So far 2.76 crore mandays had been utilised under this scheme. Of this, 1.49 crore were SC families.

The Chief Minister honoured representatives of panchayats which had done a commendable job in implementing this scheme.

Sonepat, July 29
Badkhalsa villagers, agitating against the acquisition of their land, have agreed to meet with Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda tomorrow after a meeting with Jitender Singh Malik, MP, and Jai Tirth Dahiya, MLA from Rai .

However, the villagers reiterated that if their demands were not accepted, they would launch an indefinite dharna on Sunday.

Dahiya said the government could pay Rs 45 lakh per acre, provided the villagers gave an undertaking in the court that they were satisfied with the compensation. This offer was rejected by the villagers, who have been agitating under the banner of the “Bhoomi Adhigrahan Virodhi Sangharsh Samiti” against the acquisition of their land for the Rajiv Gandhi Education City since 2006.

Samiti convener Virender and other activists, including Ram Chander, Pale Ram, Kanwal Singh and Dharmender, said their only demand was the release of their land as most of the families in the village had become landless because of the acquisition of their land for Motilal Nehru Sports School, Rai, the Kundli-Maneshar-Palwal expressway and the education city.

About 282 acres of land was acquired in November, 2005, and the acquisition award was announced in February, 2006. The compensation was fixed at Rs 12 lakh per acre, which went up to Rs 16.68 lakh per acre, including other benefits.

However, the land-owners refused to accept the award and started agitation against the acquisition.

Panipat, July 29
A woman committed suicide at the local railway station after her husband was accidentally crushed to death under a train here today.

Komal Singh (58) and his wife, Sheela Devi (54) were returning to their home in Guna district of Madhya Pradesh after visiting Vaishno Devi and Amarnath.

According to eyewitnesses, the couple got off a train to catch another. Komal Singh was crushed by a speeding train while they were crossing the railway line. Shocked by the incident, Sheela also jumped in front of a train.— TNS

Panipat/Karnal, July 29
A skull and chopped bones were recovered from a drain in Sector 18 yesterday. The police is yet to identify the deceased.

Forensic experts said the body belonged to a person who had been killed a few days ago. But the cause of the death had not yet been ascertained. — TNS