NEIGHBOURHOOD

Three-day remand for accused
Duped municipal council of crores of rupees
Surinder Bhardwaj

Fatehgarh Sahib, February 18
All three accused, who duped the municipal council, Mandi Gobindgarh, of crores of rupees by selling 32 bighas and 13 biswas land to the council for dumping garbage by creating fake documents, have surrendered in the court of Judicial Magistrate (First Class) at Amloh today.

They were sent to a three-day police remand.

The police had registered a case under Sections 420, 467, 468,471 and 120B against Sukhdev Singh, a resident of Beer Bhamarsi, Harbans Singh, a resident of Salani, and Balkar Singh of Bassi Pathana.

The municipal council, Mandi Gobindgarh, was to buy land for dumping garbage, it received an offer letter from one Kuldeep Kaur, who wanted to sell 32 bighas and 13 biswas. The letter was forwarded to the then executive officer, who sent it to the SDM and DC. The rate fixation committee finalised the deal at

Rs 45 lakh per acre. In the meantime, Sukhdev Singh, Harbans Singh and Balkar Singh purchased the land from Kuldeep Kaur.

The opposition councillors filed a criminal writ petition in the High Court alleging that the executive officer and president of the council in connivance with the sellers embezzled crores of rupees as the sellers purchased the same land measuring 32 bighas and 13 biswas on February 14, 2011, for Rs 53.10 lakh and sold the same land after three days for Rs 3.06 crore to the municipal council. The court directed the Fatehgarh Sahib SSP to probe the matter. The police submitted the report in the court stating that the case had been registered against the three sellers for using fake documents to sell the land to the council authorities. When contacted, Amloh DSP, refused to comment on the issue.

Chandigarh, February 18
A local court here today awarded a two-year imprisonment to a former student of DAV College, Sector 10, in connection with a fake currency case. The court also slapped a fine of Rs 1,500 on the guilty.

The accused, Aashish, had deposited fake currency notes of Rs 23,00 while taking admission to the college. He had completed his graduation in 2009.

Aashish, a resident of Sector 36, was arrested on August 21, 2009, while depositing 23 fake notes in the denomination of Rs 100. College cashier Mohinder Kumar had caught Aashish when he was depositing fee for the mass communication course.

His father is a Punjab-based financier and is running his own business.

Chandigarh, February 18
Two persons were arrested for stealing LPG cylinders from different parts of the city.

The accused have been identified as Akash Babu of Sector 4, Panchkula, and Chander Pal of Mani Majra. A total of 50 cylinders, including 49 domestic and one commercial, were recovered from their possession. Chander Pal is employed with a Mani Majra-based gas agency. After stealing the cylinders, Akash used to sell those and share the profit with Chander.

Acting on a tip-off, the police first arrested Akash Babu on February 15 from the Motor Chowk while Chander Pal was nabbed on February 16.

Both the accused were produced in the court, were sent them to judicial custody. 

Panchkula, February 18
In the infamous gangrape case wherein a Class XI student of Delhi was gangraped in Sector 20, Panchkula, and at Ridge View Hotel in Shimla, the Panchkula police has filed a detailed chargesheet against the accused.

The police has filed a chargesheet against a Delhi resident, Virender Khanna, Rakesh, Uttam, Pankaj, Uma Koirala and two others.

A senior police official said they had recently filed the chargesheet and now the case had been committed for session trial in the court of Additional District and Sessions Judge, Panchkula.

The police said on August 21 last the victim, a resident of Arjunnagar in Delhi, accompanied a youth, Rakesh, to Panchkula. The latter had allegedly promised her family that he would help her in enrolling in an air hostess course in Chandigarh. On August 22, the two arrived at GH 79, a housing society in Panchkula, where Rakesh allegedly raped the woman. In the evening they left for Shimla along with three others. During their stay at a hotel in Shimla, she was again allegedly raped by the accused.

The victim had informed the police that the accused had taken Rs 15,000 from two people, Dinesh and Gandhi. After consuming liquor, they raped her. On August 23, she was brought back to Sector 20, Panchkula. She insisted on returning home, but the accused, Rakesh, Uttam, Pankaj and Uma Koirala, did not allow her to do so.

Thereafter, Virender Khanna, who had made phone calls to the victim telling her if she did not “assist” the suspects he would kill her mother who lived in Delhi. On getting an opportunity, she started shouting in the Sector 20 society, which drew the attention of neighbours who called up the police following which the police arrested the accused. 

Mohali, February 18
Over 600 telephone connections in Mohali went dead last night after thieves stole a 15-m underground telephone cable disrupting services at Phase VI and surrounding areas here.

This is the seventh incident of theft in the town in the last five months and the police has not been able to arrest any of the gang members involved in the theft.

Officials of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) realised the extent of the damage in the morning when they saw that the thieves had broken the sealed lid of the underground chamber and removed the expensive cable near Phase VI here. Incidentally, the theft took place at a short distance form the motor market. “It will take us two days to reconnect the cable as it requires a lot of effort,” said a BSNL official inspecting the repair work at the site.

A senior official in the BSNL said despite repeated requests to the district police no effort was made to nab the thieves who only targeted the underground cables. But the police seldom lodged an FIR and only daily diary reports (DDR) were lodged. He said the PCR vehicles were not patrolling the areas properly.

The officials said they had requested the SSP to depute special teams to nab the culprits. The officials said the cable had been stolen to cripple the services of the service provider. The cable was taken away in a vehicle, said another official. 

Chandigarh, February 18
Bun Kenny (Cambodia), the top seeded player in the qualifiers, crushed Adit Jain (India) in straight sets (6-2, 6-1) on the first day of singles qualifying matches for International Tennis Federation (ITF) Men’s Futures Tennis Tournament (US $10,000) to be held here from February 20.

The day witnessed some closely contested matches as well as a few one-sided affairs. Akash Wagh (Ind), seeded second, came from behind to dispose of his compatriot Suraj Beniwal in 3 sets (1-6, 6-1, 6-4). Having lost the first set tamely, Akash Wagh brought all his skills into play to beat a spirited challenge from wild card entrant Suraj Beniwal. Ronak Manuja and Vinod Gowda, both from India, were involved in a closely contested match. Manuja won the first set 7-6(3), but Gowda fought back to claim the second set 6-2. The third set went the full distance before Manuja prevailed over Gowda 7-5. Hsien-Yin Peng (Taiwan) was easily beat Shantnu Rajput (Ind) in straight sets (6-0, 6-1). Vivek Shoukeen (Ind), ninth seed, carved out a well fought straight set win against Arpit Sharma (Ind) 7-5, 7-5. Miles Bugby (Great Britain), fourth seed, prevailed over Rakshit Thakkar (Ind) in 3 sets (4-6, 6-2, 6-0).

Danillar Duldaev ( Kyrgyzstan ), seeded sixth, and Liya Chloniya (Russia) were involved in a thriller which extended to 3 sets.Duldaev, after a see saw struggle, won the first set 7-5. Liya Chloniya then won the second set 6-4. The third set saw both the players matching each other stroke by stroke, but finally Dulaev was able to beat Liya Chiloniya 7-5 to clinch the match in 3 sets.

Chandril Sood and Lakshit Sood, the two brothers from India had mixed luck. While Chandril disposed of wild card entrant Digvijay Singh Naruka in straight set (6-3, 6-3), his brother slumped to second seed Kunal Anand (Ind) in 3 sets (5-7, 6-3, 6-2). Eighth seed Matthieu Vierin (Italy) had an easy passage as he knocked off wild card entrant Yogesh Phogat (Ind) 6-0, 6-0. The other wild card entrant Dheeranush Singh Bhati (Ind) met the same fate at the hands of Motoaki Kita (Jpn) 6-1, 6-0. 

Chandigarh, February 18
Ishu Jindal bagged two gold medals at the annual athletics meet held at Swami Vivekanand Group of Institute here today.

Students participated in various activities including 100 m, 200 m, 400 m, 1500 m, and relay race, tug of war, shot put, long jump, high jump, and indoor games like chess and carom at the event. The winners were awarded gold, silver and bronze medals.

Kishan Kumar and Geetika Khurana were judged the best athletes in boys and girls categories respectively.

The chief guest, Brig (retd) Labh Singh, a former Olympian and Dhyan Chand awardee, highlighted the value of hard work and said that it was the only way to achieve success. He urged the students to use the college-level sports meet as a launch pad for their sporting carreres.

Results:

100 m (Girls): Ishu Jindal 1, Vandana Sharma 2, Geetika 3; 100 m (Boys): Kishan Kumar 1, Prince 2, Amitesh 3; 200 m (Girls): Ishu Jindal 1, Geetika 2,.Gurleen 3; 200 m (Boys): Arpit Sharma 1, Amitesh 2, Kishan Kumar 3; 800 m (Girls): Nisha Grover 1, Amandeep Kaur 2, Mandeep Kaur 3; 800 m (Boys): Kishan Kumar 1, Simranjeet Singh 2, Priyankar 3; Long Jump (Girls): Sandeep Kaur 1, Ishu Jindal 2, Geetika 3; Chess (Girls): Pooja 1, Misha 2, Diksha 3.