Sonepat, January 19
The special investigating team (SIT) has arrested Sumit of Badwasni and Amit of UP for their alleged involvement in the Sonepat jailbreak on Tuesday night, DSP Surender Malik said here today.

The arrested youths had managed to supply four new mobile phones to the escaped jail inmates.

Amit, who was facing 13 cases of murder and attempt to murder, one in Sonepat and 12 in UP, was released on bail from the local district jail on January 9. Similarly, Sumit, an accused in a murder case, was released from the district jail on January 9.

The DSP said the two developed friendship with the escaped prisoners during their stay in the jail.

Meanwhile, three jail warders - Pawan , Surender and Suresh-- who were suspended for negligence on duty, were arrested late last night.

Karnal: Alerted by the Sonepat jailbreak, Rakesh Arya, SP, Karnal, on Thursday inspected Karnal jail.

Jailsuperintendent Sher Singh briefed the SP about the security arrangements at the Karnal jail. The SP also gathered information about the geographical position of the jail and its surroundings.

Arya sought information about the categorisation of prisoners and inspected the barracks. He also scanned the record of those visiting the jail.

The SP asked the jail staff to clear the jail area of grass as a preventive measure.

Arya said the outer jail complex would have barbed wire fencing. Patrolling by securitymen equipped with walkie-talkie sets would be undertaken. A request had been made to the government to provide high-end metal detectors for installation at all entry points to check smuggling of any instrument.

Sources said the jail was overcrowded with about 2,000 inmates and also understaffed. While some CCTV cameras were in place, more were being acquired to keep a vigil on the prisoners.

Rohtak, January 19
No lesson seems to have been learnt from the recent accident of a school van in Ambala district which resulted in the death of 13 schoolchildren as school vans and vehicles in the district continue to flout safety provisions with impunity.

A visit to some schools in the morning revealed that many vehicles carrying children were either overloaded or lacked several other safety features, including the failure to save kids from severe cold.

A small mini van of a private school at the Civil Road here was found carrying 18 schoolchildren this morning against its capacity of 10.

At least six school vehicles were found overloaded. A majority of private schools in the city and the district do not have their own vehicles to ferry students and thus depend on private vehicles, including auto-rickshaws.

The police yesterday challaned 17 school vehicles, including 14 auto-rickshaws, two Maruti vans and a bus, on charges of overloading. The police has asked the drivers to get medical fitness certificates.

Sirsa: The authorities here have taken a tough stand against the ferrying of schoolchildren in auto-rickshaws, though the practice of transporting children in these open vehicles has not yet stopped completely.

The traffic police stopped some auto-rickshaws for violation of traffic rules and fined the drivers.

Earlier, when the schools opened after vacations on Wednesday, the traffic police imposed of fine against two auto-rickshaw drivers and had also booked a school bus driver for carrying more children than the approved capacity of the vehicle.

Auto-rickshaw drivers held a protest against the action and met the Deputy Commissioner, ML Kaushik, to air their grievances.

The auto-rickshaw drivers maintained that they had reduced the number of children in their auto-rickshaws, according the agreement reached with the police, but the police was still imposing a fine on them.

Kaushik, however, did not give any assurance to the auto-rickshaw drivers.

New Delhi, January 19
A Delhi court has transferred all three disproportionate assets cases against Haryana's former Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala and his two sons, Ajay and Abhay, to a single court for their speedy trial.

District Judge Sunita Gupta shifted all three cases involving the Chautalas to the court of Special CBI Judge Manu Rai Sethi.

The court's order came on the CBI's plea that all cases be transferred before a single judge in the same court as their trials at three different courts will lead to inordinate delay in holding and concluding them. The probe agency's plea was not opposed by the Chautalas.

The CBI had told the court that since some evidence was common in all three cases, which were being heard in different courts, conclusion of trial would take a long time and therefore, they should be transferred to one same court.

The Chautalas have been asked by the court to appear before Special Judge Manu Rai Sethi on February 2. Initially, all three cases against Chautalas were being tried at Karkardooma court by District Judge PS Teji. In September, Teji had transferred OP Chautala's case to Special CBI Judge Rajiv Mehra while the case against Abhay Chautala remained with him.

On a plea by Ajay Chautala, his case, which was being heard by Teji, was transferred to Special CBI Judge Vinod Kumar at Rohini court complex early this month.

The CBI had registered cases against OP Chautala and his family members on a complaint by Haryana Congress leader Shamsher Singh Surjewala. All three cases were at a stage of recording of statements of prosecution witnesses.

The court had framed charges against Chautala and his two sons under various provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act for allegedly abusing their official position and for possessing assets exceeding their legal incomes.

The court had also framed charges against five other accused, Chet Ram, Om Prakash, Abhimanyu Singh, Rajender Kumar and Net Ram in whose names Ajay Chautala had allegedly bought his properties, including a farmhouse and a bungalow. — PTI

Jind, January 19
Two teenaged schoolgirls died after they were run over by a speeding truck near the SP’s residence here this evening. The girls were being reportedly molestated by two youths, which led to the accident. The police has registered a case but no arrest has been made so far.

Sources said Shikha and her friend, Ankita, of Urban Estate here, were on their way to attend their tuition classes at the local Defence Colony. While Shikha was a student of class XII at DAV school, Ankita was a student of XI at Indus Public School.

As they reached near the SP’s residence, a truck tried to overtake the girls. Ankita, who was driving the Scooty, lost balance and both were crushed by the truck. The truck driver fled the spot leaving behind the vehicle. Passersby rushed the victims to the Civil Hospital where doctors declared them brought dead.

An eyewitnesses told the police that the accident resulted due to a molestation bid by the two youths who were following the girls on a motorcycle. As the youths came very close to the girls, the latter might had lost balance and skidded only to be run over by the overtaking truck.

A DSP who reached the spot said the truck had been impounded and efforts were on to nab the driver. The police was also investigating the eyewitness’ account suggesting a molestation bid at the time of the incident.

Sonepat, January 19
Devender (33), an undertrial in a murder case, of Butana village died under mysterious circumstances in a jail this morning. He was brought to the local Civil Hospital by some jail staff and doctors declared him as brought dead.

The jail staff informed the doctors that before bringing Devender to the hospital, he complained of a chest pain this morning. Devender’s father, Balwan Singh, and sister, Sunita, alleged that Devender had been murdered on the jail premises allegedly by another jail inmate, Ranbir, alias Dallu, of Raipur who was the main accused in the same murder case. There were injury marks on the victim’s ear, nose and neck, they claimed.

They also alleged that there was some altercation between Devender and Ranbir two days back and Ranbir had threatened him with dire consequences. But the jail authorities did not take any precautionary step on his complaint, they added.

Along with other residents of Butana village, they met KK Rao, SSP, and demanded that the case should be investigated as a murder case by the police and the postmortem should be conducted at the PGIMS, Rohtak. The SSP assured that the case would be investigated from all angles and the police would take action on the basis of inquiry.

Ranbir and Devender were arrested by the police for the murder of a sarpanch of Raipur village and were lodged in the district jail here.

Chandigarh, January 19
The Punjab and Haryana High Court today issued notice of motion for February 17 to the state of Haryana, and the Director of State Vigilance Bureau, on a PIL for the issuance of guidelines for appointing the bureau chief.

In the PIL placed before the Bench of Justices MM Kumar and AK Mittal, advocate HC Arora asserted the Supreme Court of India had laid down guidelines in Vineet Narain’s case for appointment of the Central Vigilance Commissioner as well as the CBI Director.

In Parkash Singh’s case, the Supreme Court of India had issued guidelines for appointment of state DGPs.

There was a committee comprising the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition and a minister, which recommended the candidate for appointment as CVC. Another committee headed by the CVC recommended candidate for appointment as CBI Director.

Although the Haryana Government enacted Haryana Police Act, 2007, it has not so far laid down any procedure for the appointment of Director, State Vigilance Bureau. It is a post occupied by a DGP-level police officer.

Faridabad, January 19
The police has arrested four members of a gang involved in grabbing several empty plots and vacant houses by forging documents to claim themselves to be tenants and later blackmailing owners for hefty money to return them their properties.

They were identified as Netra Pal, Jawahar Singh, Ravi and Ramesh. The police has taken them in remand for further interrogation. It said more persons associated with the gang are likely to be arrested soon.

Anil Kumar of the CIA (special investigating wing of the Haryana Police) said the police stumbled on the land racket in the city when it arrested the four in connection with a partly constructed house on a 500 square yards plot in Sector 9 owned by Yashpal. They had allegedly forged documents to suggest that the owner had leased the premises to them on rent. They had taken possession of the house and were demanding money from the owner to vacate it.

Chandigarh, January 19
The state government today issued the posting and transfer orders of six IAS and one HCS officers with immediate effect.

J.Ganesan will be the new Deputy Commissioner, Sirsa, relieving ML Kaushik of the said charge. Ram Niwas has been posted as Financial Commissioner and Principal Secretary, Urban Local Bodies Department, relieving SS Dhillon of the said charge.

P.Raghavendra Rao has been posted as Financial Commissioner and Principal Secretary, Development and Panchayats Department and Secretary, BAC and Commissioner, Gurdwara Elections.

CR Rana, Special Secretary, Health Department, Mission Director, National Rural Health Mission and Commissioner, Food and Drugs Administration, will also function as MD, Haryana Dairy Development Cooperative Federation Limited, against a vacant post.

TL Satyaprakash, Director and Joint Secretary, Industries and Commerce and Mines and Geology Departments, has been given additional charge as Chief Executive, Haryana Khadi and Village Industries Board, against a vacant post.

Vikas Yadav, MD, Haryana Seeds Development Corporation and Deputy Secretary, Health Department, will also be Deputy Secretary, Revenue and Disaster Management Department.

Pushpender Singh, HCS, has been posted as ADC, Mewat, at Nuh.