B A T H I N D A    E D I T I O N

Moga district gets sessions division
Moga, April 28
To reduce the growing workload and speedy disposal of cases, a new sessions division was formally inaugurated here today. 
Karamjit Singh Kang while taking charge of the office of the district and sessions judge of Moga district on Saturday. Also present (from left) are Justice Ranjit Singh Randhawa, Justice AN Jindal and Justice KC Puri of the Punjab and Haryana High Court. Photo by writer

Faridkot snatching incident
Pak High Commission takes cognisance
Faridkot, April 28
Two weeks after a Pakistani woman was robbed by some chain snatchers in Faridkot and the police having failed in making any headway in the case, the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi has taken cognisance of the case.

Muktsar Civil Hospital
Dialysis unit lying unused for want of technician
Muktsar, April 28
The dialysis unit at the Civil Hospital here is lying unused for the past about two months for want of a technician to operate the machine.

AIEEE candidates hunt for place to stay
Bathinda, April 28
With the All India Engineering Entrance Examination (AIEEE) scheduled tomorrow, students and their parents were seen jostling for rooms to stay overnight.

Family duped of Rs 35 lakh
Ferozepur, April 28
The Ferozepur police has booked an NRI woman identified as Rajwinder Kaur along with her four accomplices for allegedly duping a family of `35 lakh on the pretext of facilitating its immigration to Canada.

Moga district gets sessions division
Karamjit Kang is Moga’s first district & sessions judge
Kulwinder Sandhu
Tribune News Service

Moga, April 28
To reduce the growing workload and speedy disposal of cases, a new sessions division was formally inaugurated here today. Karamjit Singh Kang, a 1990-batch PCS judicial officer, took over the charge as the first district and sessions judge of Moga district.

Kang had recently joined here as the senior most additional district and sessions judge and was elevated to the new position a couple of days back.

A senior judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court (HC), Justice Ranjit Singh Randhawa, who is also the chairman of the building committee of the HC, along with his colleagues Justice KC Puri, the administrative judge of Faridkot and Moga districts, and Justice AN Jindal inaugurated the sessions division in the presence of the local judges and members of the District Bar Association.

Later, the HC judges went to the newly-renovated court room of the district and sessions judge where Karamjit Singh Kang assumed the charge and started hearing the cases.

While addressing a gathering of the local lawyers and prominent figures of the area, Justice Ranjit Singh congratulated the people of the district, especially the advocates who had struggled hard to have a full-fledged sessions division here.

It may be mentioined that the Moga sessions division has been carved out of the Faridkot sessions division.

Justice Ranjit Singh said the major challenge before the judicial officers was a large number of cases pending in the courts, the trials of which need to be accelerated to provide justice to the people in time.

Justices AN Jindal and KC Puri also addressed the gathering and passed on good wishes to the lawyer fraternity and the local people.

Faridkot district and sessions judge Fatehdeep Singh, the additional sessions judges of Moga Sukhwinder Kaur and Harpal Singh, chief judicial magistrate Rakesh Gupta, the president of the District Bar Association Sunil Garg and the local judges and lawyers were present on the occasion.

Faridkot snatching incident
Pak High Commission takes cognisance
Balwant Garg
Tribune News Service

Faridkot, April 28
Two weeks after a Pakistani woman was robbed by some chain snatchers in Faridkot and the police having failed in making any headway in the case, the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi has taken cognisance of the case.

On April 24, Tahira Hidayat Sufi lodged a complaint with the Indian High Commission in Islamabad and the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi and demanded an inquiry into the incident. Tahira also accused the Faridkot police of ‘deliberately’ not taking any action in the case.

Now in response to her complaint, the Deputy High Commissioner in Pakistan Embassy at New Delhi, Babar Amin, has asked Tahira to submit the details of the incident, including the hotel where she was staying, the exact description of the items stolen, the case/FIR number and the date of the incident.

Tahira, the wife of a Lahore-based industrialist Khalid Sufi, was in Faridkot to get treatment for her seven-year-old mentally-challenged son at a naturopathy centre. She had reached Faridkot on April 4 and stayed in a hotel. On April 15 evening, when she was returning to the hotel along with her two sons, three motorcycle-borne miscreants snatched her bag containing travel documents, some valuable goods and Pakistani currency worth over Rs 3 lakh.

Two days after the snatching incident, though the police claimed of having recovered some of the looted items, it failed to solve the case and arrest the accused, much to the dismay of Tahira. Disappointed, Tahira left for Lahore on April 19.

Though the police claimed to have recovered some of the looted goods, it was quite surprising that the police did not have any information about the accused, rued Tahira.

Faridkot SHO Balwinder Singh Basi said the police was highly concerned about the snatching incident. “We are making all possible efforts to solve the case as the incident is a bad commentary on our law and order situation. The miscreants had abandoned the stolen goods at an isolated place, as these goods, including the Holy Quran, were of no use to them,” said the SHO.

FAct file

Tahira Hidayat Sufi, the wife of a Lahore-based industrialist, reached Faridkot on April 4 to get treatment for her seven-year-old mentally-challenged son at a naturopathy centre.

On April 15, three motorcycle-borne miscreants snatched her bag containing travel documents, some valuables and Pakistani currency, while she along with her two sons was returning to the hotel where she was staying.

Two days later, the police claimed to have recovered some of the looted goods. However, it failed to solve the case and arrest the accused.

Disappointed, Tahira left for Lahore on April 19.

Demanding an inquiry into the incident, she lodged a complaint with the Indian High Commission in Islamabad and the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi, on April 24.

She has accused the Faridkot police of ‘deliberately’ not taking action in the case.

Muktsar Civil Hospital
Dialysis unit lying unused for want of technician
Archit Watts/TNS

Muktsar, April 28
The dialysis unit at the Civil Hospital here is lying unused for the past about two months for want of a technician to operate the machine.

However, the authorities concerned have not yet made any temporary arrangement and the patients suffering from kidney disorders are forced to visit private hospitals, which is a costly affair.

An employee at the hospital told TNS that the machine was not being used as the technician was transferred to Bathinda about two months ago and the doctor, who operated the machine earlier, was sent to Badal village.

A dialysis unit costs nearly `15 lakh and serves at least 30 patients per month. Dialysis costs `750 per sitting at the Civil Hospital while private hospitals charge anything between `2,500 and `3,000.

Muktsar Civil Surgeon Dr Gurdeep Singh Bhullar said, “The matter is in the knowledge of higher-ups and the efforts are being made to get the same technician back.”

AIEEE candidates hunt for place to stay
Bathinda only offline centre in Punjab
Tribune News Service

Bathinda, April 28
With the All India Engineering Entrance Examination (AIEEE) scheduled tomorrow, students and their parents were seen jostling for rooms to stay overnight.

Bathinda is the only offline centre of Punjab where 20,900 students would be appearing at 36 centres situated in the city as well as rural pockets.

The city hotels burst at seams due to presence of guests who had descended to be a part of the Bathinda refinery inauguration. In the absence of adequate number of rooms in city hotels, students shared rooms in different hotels.

Those who could not get rooms sought shelter in dharamshalas like Bhana Mal Trust situated in Nai Basti. Even the railway station teemed with students and their parents who were hunting for a place to stay.

Some children even took refuge in gurdwaras while others were seen making frantic calls to their relatives in the city requesting for a place to live in.

Most of the hotels are booked till Sunday evening.

Family duped of Rs 35 lakh
Our Correspondent

Ferozepur, April 28
The Ferozepur police has booked an NRI woman identified as Rajwinder Kaur along with her four accomplices for allegedly duping a family of `35 lakh on the pretext of facilitating its immigration to Canada.

The police registered the case following a complaint lodged by one Darshan Singh, a resident of Bhala Faray Mal village. He stated that his son Daljit Singh was interested in getting settled in Canada and somehow, they came in contact with Rajwinder Kaur, who belongs to Tarn Taran.

Darshan Singh further stated that after assurance from Rajwinder that she would get his son Daljit and other family members permanently settled in Canada. Over the period, she allegedly duped the family of an amount of `35 lakhs.

Sources in the police department said the NRI had allegedly trapped some other youths also in a similar manner.

DSP Jagjit Singh said as per the complaints received by the police, the accused had till date fleeced Rs 1.05 crore besides 20 gram of gold from various persons. He said the police had launched a hunt to nab the accused.