Nakodar, August 5
Residents of Jafarwal village along with the mother and sister of Baljinder Singh, who was found dead under mysterious circumstances on Thursday morning, today demanded registration of a murder case against Baljinder’s wife and her paramour.

The police had initiated proceedings under Section 174 of the CrPc on Thursday, but on the statements of the mother, Bachni, and sister, Ambi, of the deceased today the police arrested Bholi, wife of Baljinder Singh, and her paramour Raju for abetting him to commit suicide and registered a case under section 306 of IPC against them.

Villagers today refused to cremate the body of Baljinder Singh and gathered at the Shahkot police station demanding the registration of a murder case against Bholi and Raju. Following this, the police registered a case under Section 306 of the IPC and promised the family members of thoroughly investigating the matter.

Bachni alleged that her daughter-in-law Bholi developed illicit relations with Raju, who runs a poultry farm in their house, and when his son Baljinder came to know about the illicit relations and objected to it, Bholi and Raju planned to kill her son.

Jasvir Singh, DSP, Shahkot, and Inspector Gurmit Singh, who were at the cremation ground at Jafarwal village in Shahkot, said the police would acquire the phone call details of the accused. The postmortem report today mentioned that the cause of death of Baljinder Singh was due to the intake of poison and blood samples had already been sent for the viscera report, which would arrive in a few days.

Amritsar, August 5
Just after eight months of her marriage, Balwinder Kaur, daughter of Lakhbir Singh, a resident of 40 Khuh, Joura Phatak, Dharampura, here committed suicide by consuming poison. She allegedly took the extreme step of ending her life as she was fed up of continuous demands of dowry from her in-laws.

The police has registered a case under Sections 304-B and 34 of the IPC at the A-Division police station against Dilbagh Singh of Rani Bazaar, Sharipura, his parents Santokh Singh and Harjit Kaur in this connection.

Lakhbir Singh in his statement to police said his daughter was married to Dilbagh Singh about eight months back and just a few days after the marriage her in-laws started harassing her for bringing less dowry. On August 3, she came to their house and told her woes to them. However, he said they pursued her to go back to her in-laws’ house. He said in evening, Dilbagh Singh told them over phone that Balwinder Kaur was not well.

The whole family went to their house and found her unconscious. They immediately rushed her to Guru Nanak Dev Hospital from where she was referred to Fortis Escort Hospital, where she died. He said doctors told them that she had consumed poison.

Sarabjit Singh, Station House Officer, Rambagh (A-division) police station, said the accused were absconding after the registration of the case. 

Nawanshahr, August 5
police has arrested a travel agent, Sukhwinder Ram, resident of Chak Ramu village, here and got a boy, Sukhwinder Banger, released from his “captivity”, whom he had been keeping in Chandigarh for the past 10 months on the pretext of sending him abroad.

Dr Narinder Bhargav, SSP, in a press note issued here today said Surinder Kaur of Chak Ramu village had lodged a complaint with the police that Sukhwinder Ram duped her of Rs 2.20 lakh on the pretext of sending her son abroad. For the past 10 months, she had not been getting any information about the whereabouts of her son. A case under Section 420 of the IPC was registered against Sukhwinder Ram at the Behram police station and the police started investigating into the case.

During investigation, it was found that the travel agent had been keeping Sukhwinder Banger at Chandigarh for the past 10 months instead of sending him to Georgia. He had not only been pretending that he had sent Sukhwinder Banger abroad, but also got prepared a sale deed of his land to show that he was going to bring Sukhwinder Banger back home from Georgia on his own expenses. 

Gurdaspur, August 5
Gurdaspur Municipal Council Employees Union has threatened to launch a massive agitation if the MC president, Santosh Riar, did not stop her brother-in-law and Gurdaspur BJP senior vice-president Hardeep Riar from interfering in the working of the council.

Confirming this, an enraged Ramesh Gupta, president of the union, claimed that Hardeep Riar’s meddling in the affairs of the council had reached a critical point and his entry into the council’s office should be banned.

Sources disclosed that the flashpoint between the union on the one hand and Santosh Riar and her kin Hardeep Riar on the other hand came when the later forced the president to cancel a function organised by the union to facilitate 28 employees, whose services had recently been regularised.

Ramesh Gupta said the decks had been cleared to hold the function last week but on the insistence of Hardeep Riar the proceedings had to be cancelled. “The Gurdaspur MLA, Gurbachan Singh Babbehali, was to be the chief guest at the function. Since relations between the local SAD unit and the district BJP have been estranged over the last couple of months, Hardeep saw red when he got to know that the SAD MLA was to be the chief guest. An infuriated Riar then prevailed upon the president to call off the function leaving the union in the lurch. What is the fault of the union or the 28 employees in whose honour the function was slated to be held if the BJP is at daggers drawn with the MLA?” he said.

A few months ago the MC president had actually given a written assurance to the union leaders that Hardeep would not be allowed to meddle in the council’s working.

Vijay Thapa, general secretary of the union claimed that Hardeep did not want the Gurdaspur MLA to take credit for the regularisation of services of the 28 employees. “Hardeep smelt a rat when he came to know that Babbehali would be the guest of honour and that is precisely the reason why the function had to be cancelled. On a previous occasion Santosh Riar had admitted that her brother-in-law was interfering in issues pertaining to the council and had also given a written assurance that his interference would be stopped,” he said.

When contacted, Hardeep Riar said by virtue of his being a senior functionary of the local BJP he had to visit the council office regularly to get work of people done. He, however, denied that he forced his sister-in-law to call off the function.