NEIGHBOURHOOD

Badal lashes out at Cong ahead of SGPC polls
Surinder Bhardwaj

Chandigarh, September 9
The Division Bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, comprising acting Chief Justice Adarsh Goel and Justice AK Mittal, today issued notice of motion to the UT administration for October 13 on a PIL seeking issuance of appropriate directions to the administration to evolve and install a foolproof security system on the High Court premises.

The petition, filed by lawyer HC Arora, seeks the installation of modern electronic gadgets on the pattern of security systems installed at the Supreme Court.

The entire exercise should be carried out in due consultation with the High Court on the administrative side and the Punjab and Haryana High Court Bar Association. The directions have been sought in the wake of a bomb blast outside the Delhi High Court.

Referring to the security system in the High Court, the petitioner contended that “the security system in the Punjab and Haryana High Court is quite lax; anybody can enter from gate No. 1 after assuring that he is just to get an affidavit attested from an oath commissioner; anybody pretending to be a government officer can get unrestricted entry through gates; entry is at will after lunch for visitors; any mischievous element can just enter the High Court premises after posing as a lawyer by wearing a black coat and a white collar band. Laxity in the security system can pose a serious threat to the life and liberty of innocent citizens, including lawyers and the staff of the High Court”.

Thus, the petitioner contended “there is dire need to strengthen the security system and make it fool-proof, as far as possible, on the pattern of the Supreme Court, after due consultation with the Punjab and Haryana High Court Bar Association and the Hon’ble High Court on its administrative side, so that a security system, foolproof but with minimum inconvenience to lawyers community, may be set up/installed”.

Referring to the salient features of the security system prevailing in the Supreme Court, the petitioner stated that it includes “permanent passes with photographs to permanent members of the Supreme Court Bar Association or to outside lawyers, issued at the insistence of the Supreme Court Bar Association; temporary passes issued on the spot to outsider lawyers after establishing their identity based on voter’s ID or the enrollment card issued by Bar Counsel concerned, etc; temporary separate passes issued in a similar manner to litigants on the basis of strict proof of their identity; entry being allowed to petitioners in person, only for the particular courtroom where they have to appear or watch the proceedings of their cases, whereafter they have to leave the premises of the Supreme Court; frisking of all visitors, except those with permanent passes, and staff of the Supreme Court; CCTV cameras keeping account of the activities of all visitors to the Supreme Court; and no entry to persons other than lawyers to the Bar rooms, etc.”

panchkula, September 9
RK Handa, a city-based lawyer, has been appointed special public prosecutor of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in the Samjhauta blast case. A notification had recently been issued for Handa’s appointment.

He will be assisted by SK Sood as public prosecutor and Rajan Malhotra as additional public prosecutor.

Recently, the special Panchkula NIA court had allowed the investigating agency to carry out forensic tests on the material objects, including an IED timer, seized from the Samjhauta train blast site.

With this test, the agency is trying to find a link between Samjhauta and other blasts, including those at Ajmer, Hyderabad Mecca Masjid and Malegaon.

On June 20, the NIA had filed a charge-sheet against Swami Aseemanand and four others in the Panchkula NIA court.

In the charge-sheet, the agency had accused Aseemanand, Lokesh Sharma, Sunil Joshi (now dead), Sandeep Dange and Ramchandra Kalasangra, alias Ramji, of hatching a criminal conspiracy that resulted in blasts in the train near Dewana railway station in Panipat district in February, 2007, resulting in the death of 68 persons.

A majority of those killed in the blast were Pakistanis. The agency is also investigating the role of Sadhvi Pragya Thakur and RSS leader Indresh Kumar in the Samjhauta blast case.

Panchkula, September 9
A local court today convicted a Sector 12-A resident in connection with electricity theft case. The court convicted Shivpal Chaudhary, owner of Vishnu Bhawan banquet hall. According to information, in 2010, the electricity department had detected electricity theft of Rs 13, 65000 in the bhawan. The quantum of sentence will be pronounced tomorrow.

Panchkula, September 9
The police here has registered an FIR against a Chandigarh resident for raping a Sector-20 resident on the pretext of marrying her. On the victim’s complaint, the police has booked accused Gagandeep, resident of Sector 44, Chandigarh, under Sections 376 (rape) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC.

The victim in her complaint had stated that few years ago she came in contact with the accused. Thereafter, the accused had promised her that he would marry her and on the pretext of marriage he had established physical relationship with her.Both had decided to tie the nuptial knot on September 2 but the accused did not turn up for the marriage.

Thereafter, the victim lodged a complaint with Panchkula SP Maneesh Chaudhary, who further directed the Sector 20 police station SHO to register an FIR against the accused. In a related development, the Panchkula court also dismissed the anticipatory bail application of the accused.

Panchkula, September 9
The police has booked Sadhu Singh, a librarian at Government Model Sanskriti Senior Secondary School, Sector 20 for molesting girl students. Principal of the school lodged a complaint against he librarian yesterday.

The department of secondary education, Haryana, had placed him under suspension.

The librarian allegedly took two girl students to a chamber of art and craft following which the complaint was lodged against him.

The department’s spokesperson said girl students had demanded that the librarian should not be allowed to take adjustment classes as his behaviour was not appropriate.

Chandigarh, September 9
The local police arrested the mother of four along with her alleged paramour in a case of murder here today.

The police arrested Sunita along with Naresh Kumar for killing her husband Patti Ram, a rickshaw-puller. The police said Sunita had connived with Naresh to kill her husband. On the complaint of neighbour Datta Ram, a resident of New Indira Colony, the police has registered a case against Naresh and Sunita under Sections 302 and 34 of the IPC. On the night of September 6, Patti Ram came home drunk and the couple got into an argument. Following this, Sunita called up her paramour. The two allegedly suffocated Pati Ram with a pillow while the victim was resting on a cot. The police said Naresh, a painter by profession and a father of three, had allegedly developed relations with Sunita after the death of his wife some time ago.

Chandigarh, September 9
In an exciting final clash, Dev Samaj College for Women, Sector 45, defeated Dev Samaj College for Women, Ferozepur, to win the Panjab University Inter-College Kabaddi Tournament for Women (A-Division) at PU gymnasium hall, here today.

In a keenly-contested match, the city team overcame Ferozepur 10-05, while Khalsa College for Women, Sidhwan Khurd, humdled GTB Khalsa College for Women, Dasuya, 28-09 to attain the third place in the competition.

In the knockout stage, Dev Samaj College for Women, Ferozepur, outplayed GTB Khalsa College for Women, Dasuya, 32-15.

While Khalsa College for Women, Sidhwan Khurd, played a draw against Dev Samaj College for Women, Sector 45.

Chandigarh, September 9
Gurpreet Singh Batra defeated Saurav Nayyarm in a keenly-contested pre-quarterfinal match of the ongoing 1st Chandigarh Club Amateur Snooker Tournament at Chandigarh Club, here today.

After losing the first frame, Gurpreet made a strong comeback in the second frame and won the game after clearing blue, pink and black balls in his last shot. Saurav went down to Gurpreet 1-2 (39-48, 65-57 and 72-70). In other pre-quarterfinal matches, Ajay Gupta defeated Mukesh Chopra 2-0 (56-50 and 63-58) and Vishal Gupta beat Ravi Mohan Singh 2-1(52-46, 56-65 and 55-51).

Results: Karambir Singh Nalwa b Gursher Singh 2-1 (37-69, 65-59 and 68-45); Ajay Singla b Chirag Jain 2-1 (33-43, 67-56 and 65-45); Pranav Jain b Vineet Khosla 2-1 (34-45, 45- 40 and 62-56); Sandeep Kochhar b Umesh Bhandari 2-1 (45-54, 43-38 and 47-39); Vaibhav Aanand b Deepinder Singh 2-1 (44-40, 54-57, 54-50).