Karnal, September 22
Yet another runaway couple in the khap land of Haryana has been separated after an inter-caste marriage. The husband has been receiving threats to life and barred from entering the village.

The boy and the girl, both residents of Koyar village in the Nigdu area, had got married in the Gauri Shankar temple in Panipat on June 4.

The parents of the girl have not reconciled to the marriage as both of them belong to the same village and such marriages are forbidden under khap diktat.

The couple sought protection from the court and left for Gurgaon after living for 16 days at a shelter home in Karnal.

The boy, Bittoo Kumar, a diploma holder in computers from a polytechnic, alleged that on September 13, the relatives of his wife Neelam came to their house and forcibly took her away. “They threatened to kill me if I entered the village,” he said. They also forced him and Neelam to sign some blank papers, he added.

Bitto said his wife had told him on phone on September 14 that she was being tortured and feared a threat to her life.

He has urged the Superintendent of Police to free his wife from the captivity of her relatives, provide them protection and also take action against those threatening to kill them.

Advocate Deepak Sharma, who is helping the couple, has also urged the police to take action to ensure that no harm was done to the couple.

The infamous Manoj-Babli honour killing in the khap land had sent shivers across the nation in 2007.

Sirsa, September 22
The postmortem reports of the woman and her two children, whose charred bodies were recovered from a ‘sandook’ (box) on September 18, has revealed that the three were burnt alive and not murdered before being set on fire.

The postmortem of the victims Amarjit Kaur (32), her one-and-a-half-year-old daughter Navdeep Kaur and six-month-old son Sahaj has negated the earlier police theory that they were first killed and then set on fire.

The autopsy has revealed that there was no injury mark on the bodies of the three victims, thereby indicating that they died due to burn injuries sustained in the fire.

The police said that the alleged illicit relations of Amarjit’s husband Malkiat Singh with a widow, Meenu, was the reason behind the incident. The police has arrested both Malkiat and Meenu. While Meenu was remanded to judicial custody by a local court, the police interrogated Malkiat Singh to unfold the mystery.

Police sources said Malkiat Singh had admitted his relations with Meenu and had informed the police that he had gone to meet her after admitting his ailing mother to a hospital on the night of September 18. He told the police that he had received a call from Amarjit Kaur when he was with Meenu and after that the incident of fire occurred in which his wife and two kids were burnt alive.

Malkiat, according to sources, has been claiming that he did not murder them, but perhaps his wife herself committed suicide along with the children.

After the bodies were recovered from the house on the morning of September 19, the police had booked Malkiat Singh for murder on the complaint of the victim’s brother Randhir Singh.

The police had also booked Meenu, Malkiat’s father and a brother in the FIR lodged on Randhir Singh’s complaint. 

Karnal, September 22
Following protests and blockade at the Karnal-Meerut road by villagers of Manglora against smuggling of animals to UP for slaughter and murderous attack on the police while on duty, the Karnal police has booked seven persons today.

The accused identified as Bashik Bose, Dilshad, Ashwak, Taslim, Tehsin, Akil and Ansari, all from Muslim community, have been booked under Sections 323, 148, 149, 279, 427, 307, 186 and 353 of the IPC and Sections 25, 54, 59 of the Arms Act, benevolent sections of the Cow Slaughter Act and the Cruelty to Animals Act. The cases were registered on the complaint of Vinod Kumar, a member of People for Animals, an NGO, working for the protection of animal rights.

Denying the allegations of the villagers that the police had connived with smugglers, the police said during a joint checking by the police and a team of People for Animals, some trucks carrying animals to UP were intercepted at the naka but some trucks broke the barricades on the border and attacked the police and fled.

The police acted promptly and did it best to stop the culprits, but they broke the barricades and managed to escape with trucks laden with animals, police sources said. The police also released a copy of the FIR, which absolved it of the charge of “connivance and complicity”.

However, the villagers who blocked traffic at the naka at Manglora village had alleged that the animals were being illegally smuggled to UP and inspite of intercepting trucks and canters loaded with animals, the illicit animal trade was flourishing due to alleged connivance of the police with smugglers.

Karnal SP Shashank Anand said an electricity connection was being installed at the naka for enabling wireless facility, skipes would be put to deflate tyres of the vehicles attempting to escape, CCTVs would be installed and the policemen would be deployed in strength to put a tab on such illegal practices.

Karnal, September 22
Jails are not torture houses for convicts but reformatories to make them good citizens and arm them with vocational skills to lead a better and socially useful life after undergoing sentence. This has been proved by the Karnal Model jail, which has emerged as the first jail in Haryana to have a computer automation system and facilities for providing training in vocational skills and continuing education for the inmates.

With the goal that the inmates must not face any difficulty in rehabilitation after completing their sentence, the jail administration has initiated a number of activities like meditation, literacy, education and vocational skills for their mental, spiritual, social and economic development and made efforts to ensure that the prisoners are receptive to these initiatives.

A vocational training centre affiliated to the National Open School with 12 trades, including carpenter, plumber and swing, has been made functional. Schooling facilities are available in the jail and a library with 6,000 books has been established.

As most of the prisoners belong to farming families, experts from National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI) deliver lessons on agro-farming and cattle breeding. Besides a meditation centre, schools for music, language and drawing and painting have been opened.

Monthly medical camps for prisoners and stress management programmes like spiritual healing workshops, lessons from the Art of Living and Eskon are held regularly. More than 50 such programmes have been conducted since January this year, says jail superintendent Sher Singh, the moving spirit behind the mental transformation of the prisoners.

About 50 prisoners have turned artists and their works would be exhibited soon, said Jiya Lal, who is teaching music to the inmates.

These activities have also helped the inmates explore and hone their talents. They have not only staged a play to create awareness about social evils like female foeticide but also penned the script.

Literary works of nine prisoners have been selected in the creative writing contest organised by the Institute of Correction. Agriculture Minister Param Vir Singh honoured the jailor on Republic Day this year and presented him with a letter of appreciation for enhancing the education level of inmates and creating a cultural, spiritual and environment-friendly atmosphere in the prison.

As many as 237 of the total 2,400 inmates have been made literate. The inmates include 130 females and three foreigners. The jail is playing host to 1,200 convicts and 1,100 undertrials.

Low-cost programmes for revival and rehabilitation have been started by the jail authorities and a creativity room has been set up for the display of art and craft works of the inmates for sale.The plan to open sales outlets in Karnal city for making the products available to the people is in the pipeline and once a chain is set up, more products prepared by prisoners would be on the shelves.

Rewari, September 22
Irate villagers today blocked traffic on the Delhi-Jaipur Highway at Malpura village, near Dharuhera, to register their protest against the “indifferent” approach of the police towards a huge burglary committed by thieves in Daya Ram Sharma’s house at Malpura village last night.

The villagers lifted the blockade after an hour at the persuasion of DSP Rajpal and other police officials who assured them that the culprits would be nabbed soon. The thieves who broke into Daya Ram Sharma’s house last night decamped with jewellery and Rs 10 lakh. This morning, when Sharma’s family found that jewellery and cash were missing, they informed the Dharuhera police, which took two hours to reach. At this the villagers got infuriated and blocked traffic on the highway.

Gurgaon, September 22
A woman resident of Suncity in Sector 54 here has accused her husband of rape. In a complaint lodged at the Sector 56 police station in the city, the woman has alleged that she was married to Raman Saahi of Amritsar, Punjab.

After marriage, her mother-in-law Pravesh and father-in-law Pramod Kumar Saahi started harassing her for dowry, she maintained in the police complaint. While her in-laws pressurised her to get more dowry, her husband continued to rape her. They also threatened her with dire consequences, she added.