Chandigarh, August 22
The Delhi Police has taken a new line of investigation in solving the mystery behind the suicide by Geetika Sharma, an employee of former Haryana Minister of State for Home, Gopal Goyal Kanda. Taking a cue from the inputs from the statement of various women employees of the now defunct MDLR Airlines owned by Kanda, the police is looking into the possibility of Kanda using his women employees “for purposes other than for which they had been hired”.

Highly placed sources said the Delhi Police believes that behind the tragedy that led Geetika to take her own life “there is more than a mere relationship gone sour. Kanda was using Geetika for other purposes”. But the police is tightlipped about what these purposes could be. The police has taken a statement of many women employees who were working for Kanda and is exploring the reason for Kanda employing mostly women.

“As of now the investigation is not ruling out the possibility of a love triangle where Kanda may have promised to marry Geetika, but the investigators are almost convinced that the suicide was not on account of Kanda promising or refusing Geetika a matrimonial alliance”. The investigators are reading a lot of meaning into Geetika’s first suicide note of May 4, 2012 that reads, “Gopal Kanda is a fraud. He always keeps his bad intentions towards girls. He is a man of no shame and no guilt.” (sic)

The Delhi Police is exploring the possibility of Kanda “exploiting” Geetika - which has been established by her post-mortem report and later using her to “further” his interests by forcing her to do things against her wish, hence the line, “He is a man of no shame and no guilt”. Further, Geetika has written that “In the name of relationship, trust, God he (Kanda) cheats people”.

The police is now focusing on locating Ankita, who works for Kanda and according to Geetika’s suicide note has mothered Kanda’s child. She has since gone missing from her Goa address.

The Delhi Police is also believed to have prepared a questionnaire for Nupur Mehta, a starlet who was formerly working as vice-president at MDLR. The police is also reading a lot of meaning into the line in Geetika’s second suicide note dated August 4, 2012 that reads, “Both of them (Aruna Chadha and Kanda) have broken my trust and misused me for their own benefit……… they have made my life abnormal”.

The police theory of Kanda using Geetika to strengthen his business is also being linked with Aruna Chaddha’s statement that suggests that Geetika underwent several abortions and she accompanied her. Geetika’s autopsy report also points towards the deceased having been involved in “unnatural sexual activity”.

After putting Kanda through a test at the Babu Jagjivan Ram Hospital in Delhi today, the police summoned the doctors who are believed to have conducted Geetika’s abortion. “The truth will come out once the police gets an opportunity to put Aruna and Kanda face to face and confront them with the statements both have made”, a source in Delhi said. Aruna is in judicial custody till August 30. 

Sirsa, August 22
In another setback to Gopal Kanda, prime accused in the Geetika Sharma suicide case, local municipal council vice-president Leela Dhar Saini and his supporters today removed hoardings carrying the picture of the former minister and his younger brother Gobind Kanda from Tara Baba Kutiya, a religious trust owned by them.

Saini, an activist of the Indian National Lok Dal, who claims to be a trustee of Shri Tara Baba Ji Kutiya, tried to enter the religious place with hundreds of his supporters in the morning today.

Sensing trouble, the authorities had deployed a large posse of policemen outside the kutiya and they stopped Saini and his supporters on the main gate.

Saini said they were believers of Tara Baba Kutiya and wanted to go in to worship.

However, when the police did not allow them to enter the place, Saini and his supporters objected to the hoarding carrying pictures of a “person accused of moral turpitude”, which, they alleged, was hurting their religious sentiments.

The police later allowed them to remove Kanda’s hoardings from the main gate.

Later, Kanda supporters and the INLD levelled allegations and counter-allegations against each other over today’s incident.

Krishan Lal Saini, Prem Sharma, Gurdial Saini, Angrez Bathla and several other supporters of Gopal Kanda alleged that the INLD workers had come with the intention of taking forcible possession of the kutiya as well as the palatial house of the former minister.

The INLD, on the other hand, maintained that Saini and his supporters were all old worshipers of Tara Baba and the INLD had nothing to do with the act.

Padam Jain, district president of the INLD, said there were two groups of ‘sevaks’ (servers) of Tara Baba - one group headed by the Kandas and the other by Lila Dhar Saini.

“Piqued by the immoral deeds of Gopal Kanda, Saini and his supporters had gone to the kutiya to perform a havan to purify the temple of their worship and remove hoardings carrying the former minister’s pictures from its vicinity so that people’s religious sentiments are not hurt,” Jain maintained. 

Hisar, August 22
Haryana Roadways will soon introduce city bus service here to reduce traffic congestion and provide a cheaper, safer and quicker means of transportation.

An official spokesperson said Hisar and Rohtak had been chosen for introducing this service after the experiments in Faridabad, Gurgaon and Panchkula succeeded.

He said the revenue receipts in these three cities were comparable to inter-state and inter-district bus services.

Rohtak, August 22
Two patients on a bed seem to have become a norm in the gynaecology department of the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences (PGIMS), Rohtak. Shortage of para-medical staff and infrastructure has emerged as a dogging problem for the department which handles up to 300 patients daily.

Affiliated to Pt BD Sharma Health University, the PGIMS caters to more than 6,000 OPD patients every day.

“Work is in progress under a project named ‘Mother and Child Care Centre’ to enhance the infrastructure and capacity to handle patients in the gynaecology department, but the slow pace of work appears to have extended the problems being faced by both the patients and staff,” said a source in the institute.

The new centre would provide at least 100 more beds and facilities after its completion, he said, adding that the project was launched about four years ago.

“Nearly 60 patients come to the labour room every day. Of the total patients, half of them require to be admitted. But, shortage of beds force the staff to accommodate two patients on a bed,” said an employee of the gynaecology department.

“At present, the labour room has only 10 beds, but four to five beds are added in case of emergency. The department handles more than 25 deliveries daily besides seven to eight surgical operations. But the limit of only 25 ultrasound tests per day results in problems for patients and their attendants,” he said.

“Moreover, shortage of experts such as radiologist is a big problem for doctors on duty as they have to handle tests themselves,” said a doctor.

A source said there was only one staff nurse for about 50 patients, while the requirement norm was a nurse for every three patients.

Dr SS Sangwan, Vice-Chancellor of the health university, said since it was a government institute, treatment was free and a large number of patients report here.

“No patient is turned away on the ground of shortage of beds,” he said adding that the new centre would help in solving the problem.

Chandigarh,August 22
Against the backdrop of incidents of exploitation of women and children at shelter homes in Rohtak and Karnal, the Haryana Government proposes to provide statutory backing to the State Commission for Women (SCW) on the pattern of the National Commission for Women.

Sources said a new Bill named the Haryana State Commission for Women Bill, 2012, would be presented in the forthcoming Monsoon Session of the Vidhan Sabha beginning August 24.

“The Bill attempts to put in place an institutional mechanism to protect the rights of women and children particularly in the government-run and private shelter homes all over the state,” a senior government functionary said here today.

In fact, the Bill proposes to vest the powers of the civil court in the commission, like its national counterpart. The Bill will also provide punitive powers to the commission to prevent recurrence of recent incidents of abuse of children and women in private shelter homes which brought a lot of embarrassment to the Bhupinder Singh Hooda Government.

Currently, the State Women Commission has virtually no statutory power as it had been created with the help of a notification.

On May 9, a team of the National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) had raided the Apna Ghar shelter home in Rohtak, Chief Minister’s home district, and rescued nearly 120 persons, a majority of them women and children, who were allegedly exploited for several months. Currently, the CBI is conducting an inquiry into the Apna Ghar case.

Close on the heels of this case, alleged molestation of minor girls was also reported from another shelter home in Karnal.

Hisar, August 22
Heavy rains lashed the district for the second consecutive day today, upsetting normal life. The rain started early this morning and continued intermittently till the evening. Met office said Hisar received 50 mm of rain today, the same as yesterday. All low lying areas of the city were flooded.

The flood waters could not be drained out completely as it kept raining every hour or so.

The worst affected areas were Sainian Mohalla, Urban Estate, Chhotu Ram Chowk, Badhwali Dhani and Mahavir Colony. Attendance in educational institutions was reported to be thin. The colleges reported lower attendance compared to schools mainly because schoolchildren are picked up from their homes by school buses.

Farm experts said the rain was welcome but warned that if it continued to rain with the same intensity for the next two days, cotton crop could be damaged. Otherwise, they said, the rain was beneficial to the standing crops. Farmers welcomed the downpour, saying their costs would be drastically cut as they need not spend on diesel now to run their tubewells. Satbir Singh of Satrod village, near here, said he now hoped to reap a good crop though the dry season in July had made him a very worried man.

The rains have led to a drastic reduction in the power cuts in the area. A spokesperson for the Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam said power consumption had come down heavily because of falling demand. This had enabled the power utility to supply more power to domestic and industrial consumers.

He said air-conditioners and desert coolers were no longer in use for long periods, making a huge amount of power available for use in other sectors, like industry.

However, local nursing homes have seen a surge in the number of patients suffering from fever, throat and stomach infections. 

Faridabad, August 22
Decks have been cleared for disbursal of pension under various schemes of the Haryana Government to those in Faridabad who were unable to get it last year.

About 12,000 eligible persons could not get their pension from March to August last year due to alleged goof up by Axis Bank. Official sources said the government had sent more than Rs 3 crore to the office of the Faridabad Social Welfare Officer for clearing the pension dues.

Satyawan Dhilorh, Faridabad District Welfare Officer, said under its electronic-benefit transfer scheme, the Haryana Government designated banks in the districts to disburse the pension. The scheme was launched by the government to ensure that the pension were disbursed in time.

Under the scheme, accounts of the pensioners were to be opened with the designated banks of the area concerned.

The government deposited the entire pension money to the banks concerned. The bank credited the pension to the accounts of the beneficiaries. According to him, opening of accounts involves documentations. Accounts of a number of pensioners could not be opened on technical grounds. The bank here returned the undisbursed pension to the government. However, a number of pensioners have alleged that the bank was fussy with regard to procedures and rules, which hindered opening of their accounts with it.

Meanwhile, the department said the pension would be soon given to the beneficiaries manually.

Gharonda, August 22
Firing a fresh salvo at the Bhupinder Singh Hooda led Congress Government in the state, Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) supremo Om Prakash Chautala today said people were fed up with the most corrupt government in the state and itching for a change.

Addressing a rally at Gharonda, he accused Hooda of shielding corrupt and characterless leaders.

The INLD supremo said former minister Gopal Kanda was the latest in the list of leaders exposed for alleged corruption and moral turpitude.

Chautala said the Congress Government could not wash its hand off in the Kanda episode as the Chief Minister not only took his support in forming his government but also inducted him as a minister in his Council of Ministers.

“Charges of corruption against ministers and senior Congress leaders are a routine affair in Haryana. But now, allegations of murders and exploitation of women have also started surfacing and the image of the state has got a beating,” he said.

Lashing out at the Chief Minister for shielding ‘tainted’ leaders like Kanda, Chautala said politicians like Om Prakash Jain and Jile Ram, who were accused in the murder case of Kambopura village former sarpanch, also enjoyed his blessings but were forced to resign under public pressure. 

Faridabad, August 22
Residents of Shyam Colony, Ballabhgarh, pelted a police team with stones when they tried to take the body of an accident victim in a PCR vehicle instead of an ambulance last evening.

Vidya Devi (45) was crushed to death by a speeding dumper when she was waiting for her husband on a roadside.

The irate residents also blocked the road connecting the colony with Tigaon Road for more than four hours in protest against the police move to take the body in their vehicle.

A mild force was used by the police to disperse the mob and took the body to the hospital in their vehicle. — TNS

Jhajjar, August 22
A woman allegedly committed suicide by consuming poison after giving the same her two children at her residence at Yadav Colony on the Rewari Road in the town last night.

The deceased have been identified as 35-year-old Neelam and her 11-year-old daughter Tannu and seven-year-old son Piyush.

Domestic feud between the woman and her husband is stated to be the reason behind the incident.

The police has registered a case of abetment to suicide against Neelam’s husband Jitender Singh of Dighal village on the complaint of her family members.

The incident came to light when Neelam informed a woman residing in her neighbourhood that she had consumed poison after giving it to her children.

The three were rushed to Civil Hospital by the neighbours from where they were, after giving first aid, referred to PGIMS at Rohtak, But due to their critical condition, they later died during the treatment.

“Jitender, who is a truck driver, used to quarrel with Neelam over petty issues. This forced Neelam to take this extreme step,” said Investigating Officer Baljeet Singh,