Jalandhar, August 2
Sonu Giri (30), whose death had sparked a violent protest in the city suburbs of Santokhpura and the surrounding areas yesterday, died after being “brutally tortured”. Electric shocks were said to be one of the causes behind his death. A panel of three doctors conducted the autopsy of the deceased today.

Sources said the doctors found injury marks on the body, which indicates that electric shock was given to him. Relatives of the deceased also alleged that Sonu was killed after being electrocuted.

“There were injury marks on the arms and the skin was also peeled off. Another cause of death could be sudden shock caused by an injury of extreme nature during the physical torture”, the doctor said.

“However, we are also examining that whether the deceased was under the influence of any intoxicant or poisoning substance,” he added.

Meanwhile, the situation is still tense in the Santokhpura mohalla and surrounding localities. As the deceased was to be cremated today, a large number of police personnel were deployed to prevent any eventuality.

As the police has failed to arrest the suspects even after registering a case of murder against them late last evening, relatives and residents of the area again resorted to a violent protest.

The protesters were demanding that the suspects should be arrested immediately. The police, however, pacified the protesters and the situation remained calm until 2 pm when the relatives of the victim asked the police to take the body to his home to perform the last rites.

The relatives exchanged heated arguments with policemen, who were apprehending that this could again spark a violent protest and were reluctant to give into their demand. Later, the police allowed to take the body to his home but only under police protection.

Rajpal Sandhu, ADCP (Crime), said the situation was under control, adding that only the autopsy report could ascertain the actual reason of the victim’s death.

Meanwhile, BSP councillor Hans Raj Rana and two of his accomplices were booked under Section 302 of the IPC in the alleged murder case of Sonu Giri late last evening.

The sources added that a three-member special investigating team had been constituted by the Jalandhar police. The team would be headed by Rajpal Sandhu, ADCP (Crime), SK Sharma, ADCP, City-I, and DCP (North). Sandhu added that the team would look into all aspects of the case and would submit its report soon.

Amritsar, August 2
The family members and relatives of an inmate at Amritsar Central jail, who was lodged two days back and died this morning under mysterious circumstances, staged a protest against the police and jail authorities at Rattan Singh Chowk and forced the shopkeepers to close down the shutters till the evening.

The deceased has been identified as a 26-year-old Bawa Singh of Karanpura, who was nabbed by the Faizpura police on Saturday before sending him to jail the next day. He was booked under Section 307 after his involvement in an altercation with another person.

While the exact cause of his death could not be ascertained for want of postmortem report, the supporters of the deceased maintained that he was severely beaten up in the jail, on the orders of some political leaders, which resulted in his death. On the other hand, the doctors who attended on him on the jail premises said he was a drug addict and was violent in nature.

“But those were the external injuries, which cannot be termed as the reason for his death. The exact cause will be known only once the postmortem report comes. He was addicted to drugs and was infected with constant fits. We administered him sedative injections to calm him down. Later, he was referred to the jail hospital. Even as his blood pressure and pulse rate remained normal but he was violent in nature apparently due to withdrawal effects because of his drug addictive nature. He even got himself injured. Just last evening, his condition got deteriorated and we referred him to the civil hospital where he was declared brought dead,” said Dr Manjit Singh.

Police Commissioner RP Mittal has assured to conduct a thorough inquiry into the incident.

Jalandhar, August 2
An alert employee of the Municipal Corporation, Jalandhar, has managed to save public money to the tune of Rs 2.5 crore, which is equivalent to the average expenditure incurred on any civic work in the city in the past one and a half year.

Deputy Controller, Local Audit, BR Goel has earned laurels in the office by managing to take note of the inflated bills raised by officials for awarding contracts of various works. The total difference has found to be close to Rs 1.5 crore.

The officer, who is thorough with the rules set by the department, found that the engineering branch had been making wrong calculations on the basis of incorrect parameters and raw material rates which was ultimately leading to undue financial benefit to contractors.

Goel had to face the wrath of over 100 empanelled contractors who not just held demonstrations but also lodged complaints against him with the Finance Department. Most of these excess bills were from the B&R Department, the official said.

A proud Goel said: “Realising that the audit section is bound to scrutinise bills very closely, officials have now started working on calculations carefully and meticulously. The difference in the fresh bills and our estimates has come down considerably.”

Further, the Deputy Controller, who is the last check in the accounts section, also earned the wrath of employees of the Municipal Corporation when he found that excess salary was being disbursed to around 110 employees of the office since 1986. This made nearly Rs 1 crore and is now being recovered monthly by making deductions in their salaries.

The employees held dharnas in front of his office but when they were shown the rule book, they realised it and withdrew the protest.

Goel said the fact came into notice at the time when he was making new salaries under the revised pay scales.

“This has resulted in a current saving of Rs 1 lakh a month,” he claimed.

Gurdaspur, August 2
Hundreds of people, including patients, were put to inconvenience as the Punjab Health Department Clerical Association has started an indefinite agitation following the state government’s “callous attitude” towards their demands.”

The state government has recently advertised scores of posts of accountant, statistical assistant, junior statistical assistant, statistical officer and statistical superintendent.

Sources said these posts were to be filled from within the cadre on promotional basis and the government should not have advertised the same.

“This development has brought resentment among employees of the Health Department who were keenly looking for promotions. Stagnation has set in within the cadre and we will intensify our agitation if the state government fails to withdraw its advertisement,” said Ashok Thanewal, senior vice-president of the association.

With hundreds of employees on strike here in Gurdaspur, people of the nearby villages who wanted to get birth or death certificates had to turn back disappointed.

New contractual employees who need medical fitness certificates before joining their new jobs too had to go back disillusioned.

“Whose fault is this? I have to join my duty tomorrow. However, with the Health Department employees being on strike my new job is at peril. Their demands are genuine and the state government should take back its advertisements.”

Thanewal added that the association would intensify its stir till the advertisements were withdrawn.

Gurdaspur, August 2
Two prominent Punjab-based castes - Sainis and Suniars (goldsmiths) - which account for a sizeable vote bank in the state, have urged the Punjab Government to include their castes in its OBC list so that they are in a position to avail employment opportunities offered by the state government from time to time.

The Central Government has already included these two castes in its list of Other Backward Castes (OBC). However, over the past few years, the Punjab Government has steadfastly refused to acknowledge their status in its OBC list.

This means that people of these castes can only avail job opportunities provided by the Central Government and their wards can also seek admission to professional colleges on reservation basis. However, people of these two castes can neither avail employment opportunities offered by the state government on reservation basis nor can they take the reservation route as far as admission to professional colleges is concerned.

According to information gathered by a local lawyer Ranbir Singh under the RTI Act, the state government has put 69 castes under the head of BCs and OBCs and Sainis and Suniars do not figure in the list. Leaders of these castes are livid over the Punjab Government’s “erroneous and illogical” decision of not including them in the state government’s BC/OBC list.

Manmohan Singh Bhagowalia, general secretary of the SAD (BC wing), said: “Despite having their roots in Punjab they have been ignored by their own parent state. This means that people of these castes can’t avail job opportunities provided by the state to BCs and OBCs.”

“The Central Government admits that these castes fall in the OBC list while the Punjab Government says we are neither BCs nor OBCs. Sainis and Suniars can avail benefits of the Central Government but there is a catch her Job opportunities of the Central government are very limited as compared to opportunities provided by the state government,” said Nidhi Saini, a Taragarh-based RTI activist.

Pathankot, August 2
The Government Railway Police (GRP) recovered the body of an unidentified man from the toilet of the Indore-Jammu Tawi Malwa Super Fast train here last evening.

According to Raghubir Singh, in charge, GRP here, the train stopped at Chakki Bank railway station. Passengers of a general coach noticed the dead body and informed the GRP. The GRP removed the body from the train and sent it to the Civil Hospital for postmortem and identification.

In another incident, the local police found the body of an unidentified man of about 40 years of age from the bank of the Nalwa canal near Dheera village, 4 km from here.

The SSP, Dr S.K. Kalia, said the body was recovered from the bushes on the outskirt of Dheera village. He said no injury marks were found on the body. The body, after postmortem, was kept in the mortuary of the local Civil Hospital for identification, he added.

Pathankot, August 2
Three scanning centres of Gurdaspur district have been sealed by the health authorities due to irregularities in records. Dr Chandanjit Singh Kondal, civil surgeon, Gurdaspur, said here today that the functioning of scanning machines would remain suspended temporarily.

He said the Chohan Scanning Centre was sealed for 12 weeks, Sardari Lal Scanning Centre, Gurdaspur, for 15 days and Arora Scanning Centre, Gurdaspur, for 10 days.

If anybody found using these machines during this period, then the licence of the centre concerned would be suspended, warned the civil surgeon.