Chandigarh, August 12
More than five years after the controversial death of boxer Sonu Chahal, the CBI has closed the probe by terming it a case of suicide instead of murder.

Moreover, the CBI has also given a clean chit to Olympian bronze medallist boxer Vijender Kumar’s coach and Dronacharya Awardee Jagdish Singh. The CBI has recently filed the closure report before the Ambala court.

The closure report reads, “The investigation has disclosed that Sonu Chahal was in love with Seema, also a boxer, and wanted to marry her. But his parents were not in favour of their marriage as they belonged to different castes. Moreover, when Seema developed an intimacy with another youth, Sonu went into depression and committed suicide out of frustration”.

Report further reads, “During the course of investigation, it was found that the four accused persons, namely Narender Sangwan, Pawan Rathi (both boxers), coach Jagdish Singh and Balwan Singh, watchman of the Sports Authority of India (SAI) hostel, named in the FIR were found innocent”.

Last year, the Punjab and Haryana High Court had handed over the probe to the CBI. Sonu’s father Charan Singh Chahal had filed a petition in the high court seeking a CBI inquiry into the case.

Sonu had died on March 12, 2006, by allegedly hanging himself from a ceiling fan at his hostel room. The 20-year-old boxer from Madanheri village was training and residing at the SAI hostel at Bhiwani and had participated in several national and international competitions.

It was only after Sonu’s father repeatedly approached the higher authorities and the media highlighted the case that an FIR was registered on May 11, 2006, under the charges of murder and criminal conspiracy against the four persons.

However, the victim’s father had alleged that one of the accused, Narender Sangwan, had got admission in a hostel with forged documents and in this process coach Jagdish Singh had helped him. When Sonu came to know about the forgery, Jagdish hatched a conspiracy with the help of the other accused and later killed Sonu. 

Sirsa, August 12
Irked at waterlogging of their localities even after three days of rain, residents of Ther Mohalla, Goshala Mohalla and Rania Road held a demonstration and staged a dharna outside the office of the Public Health Department.

Residents of Chattargarh Patti also staged a demonstration against the choking of sewers in their area.

Residents alleged that due to the choking of sewer lines, filthy sewage overflows in their lanes, making it difficult for them to venture outside their houses.

The situation is so bad that one cannot pass through the street on foot, the residents alleged.

“Besides the choked sewers and open manholes, drinking water supplied to our localities is highly contaminated,” alleged municipal councillor Baljit Kaur’s husband, Rinku, who led the demonstrators.

He claimed though they had met the authorities several times, no relief had come their way.

Jagdish Jagra, Executive Engineer of the Public Health Department, however, said the residents had been facing this problem as their dwellings were in a low-lying area. He maintained that rainwater from Ther Mohalla inundated the low-lying area. He said the problem confronting the Chattargarh Patti area was being looked into. 

Chandigarh, August 12
Haryana wants the Railways to run a new Shatabdi train linking Delhi and Ludhiana via Rohtak, Jind, Narwana, Jakhal and Dhuri.

At present Delhi and Ludhiana are linked by a Shatabdi train going to Amritsar. But this train runs via Ambala. Now, Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda wants a Shatabadi link between the national capital and Ludhiana via Rohtak.

In a demi-official letter written to Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi, Hooda said: “Ludhiana is a big business centre and there are several big industries and the Central Government installations.”

Hisar, August 12
Members of the Dalit families from Mirchpur who have been camping at the Tanwar Farmhouse for the past several months have launched a dharna yet again this time listing nine demands, including withdrawal of cases registered against the farmhouse owner Ved Pal Tanwar.

They descended on the local mini-secretariat yesterday and kept shouting slogans in favour of their demands.

They are demanding that those responsible for the alleged assault on Tanwar in the police lock-up in the courts complex here on Tuesday be arrested.

In a memorandum to the district authorities they demanded adequate security around Tanwar Farmhouse and a security guard for Tanwar during his stay in jail.

The Dalits demanded compensation of Rs 5 lakh each to those hurt in a lathicharge here a few months ago. Besides, they want jobs for victims of violence against Dalits in Mirchpur last year. — TNS

Panipat, August 12
More skeletons are likely to tumble out as investigations proceed further in the fake bitumen manufacturing scam that had hit the region a few days ago.

Five units that had been raided by the police on Wednesday wore a deserted look today. A visit to Alipur Khalsa village revealed that the units were flourishing on easy money for the past seven to eight years.

The fact that the number of units multiplied in the past few years was a testimony that profits were high and more and more persons were being lured to take up the illicit practice of manufacturing bitumen.

Investigations carried out by The Tribune revealed that drivers of trucks transporting bitumen from the IOC’s Panipat refinery halt at these units where about one tonne of real bitumen was removed from the trucks and was replaced with same quantity of chalk power.

Sources said the market price of bitumen was around Rs 38,000 to Rs 39, 000 a tonne, while chalk power costs much less. Once mixed with the remaining bitumen in the truck, it was hard to differentiate between the real and fake bitumen.

On an average, about 30 to 35 trucks came to this village each day, which meant that the units were making Rs 10 lakh to Rs 12 lakh.

Other than the bitumen units, about four weighing machines also came up in the vicinity of these units, which were used by the owners to make certain that the weight of bitumen trucks while entering and leaving the premises was the same.

It was also learnt that other than trucks, a few traders also used to bring in a few drums of bitumen to these units and sell it off at meagre prices. These drums were filled with bitumen that had been removed from trucks in and around the Panipat refinery.

However, a number of employees in these units had been hired from similar units that once operated around the IOC’s Mathura refinery, but were shut down following a crackdown by the authorities there.

The sources revealed that the owners of these units had all the required documents, including licences, as they bought bitumen from the Panipat refinery to manufacture related products used in paints and various other things.

But, the real profits came from mixing chalk powder in bitumen, they said.

Meanwhile, the Karnal police has booked Panipat district president of the HJC Sanjay Kadian, along with five other unit owners in this connection.