B A T H I N D A    E D I T I O N

Missing girl alive, murder still a mystery
Bathinda, October 10 The mystery over the identity of the murdered girl whose body was found in a secluded hut at a farm on Monday deepened with the police today recovering the girl whose body it was said to be. Even the girl's father had identified the body to be that of his daughter and the revelation came as a stunner for the family even as queries over the identity and whereabouts of the dead girl are yet to be answered.
The missing girl meets her father at Canal Colony police station in Bathinda on Wednesday. Tribune photo: Pawan Sharma

Faridkot kidnapping
Street plays seek support for tomorrow’s bandh
Faridkot, October 10
While members of the action committee, formed to seek justice for a kidnapped minor girl, are holding public meetings to make the bandh on October 12 a success, a large number of girl students are staging "Begmo Di Dhee", a famous Nukkad Natak (street plays) of Gursharan Singh alias Bhai Manna Singh to urge the people to lend support for the bandh.

Drama festival in Abohar concludes with comedy play

Abohar, October 10 The three-day drama festival concluded at the DAV College auditorium last night with the staging of the comedy "Bapu Jammey Char Nikammey", by the Creative Arts Society. The hour-long laughter session was directed by Vimal Middha with Sagar Kathuria, Lovish Phutela, Prashant Gupta, Ritesh Goyal, Lovish Baghla, Jyoti Narula, Virender Doda, Pankaj Narula and Arshpreet Singh playing different roles in the play.

The play “Bapu Jammey Char Nikammey” was staged at Abohar. Photo: Raj Sadosh

World Mental Health Day
Mental diseases considered a taboo
Faridkot, October 10
The tendency to brush cases of mental illness under the carpet still exists and visiting a counsellor or psychiatrist to seek help is almost considered a taboo. Though a large number of patients who suffer distinct changes in their personality, cognition and behaviour have started visiting psychiatrists at the Guru Gobind Singh Medical College and Hospital (GGSMCH), the flip side of the problem is that a majority of them are from urban areas and economically well-off families.

More trouble awaits Abohar MC president
Abohar, October 10
Nine councillors of the SAD-BJP alliance have submitted a memorandum to the Director, Local Bodies Department, for convening a meeting of the local Municipal Council to table a no-confidence motion against president Shivraj Goyal of the BJP.

Safai karamcharis gherao police station
Muktsar, October 10
A large number of activists of the Safai Karamchari Union today gheraoed the Malout city police station demanding the immediate arrest of those involved in the disappearance of their colleague Shiv Charan.

200 kg poppy husk seized
Abohar, October 10
The Abohar police seized 200 kg of poppy husk by intercepting a Honda City un-numbered luxury car near Seetogunno. SP Varinder Singh Brar said the Seetogunno police post in-charge Amarveer Singh intercepted the car following a tip-off but its occupants managed to flee by stopping the vehicle ahead of the police naka.

Missing girl alive, murder still a mystery
Gurdeep Singh Mann
Tribune News Service

Bathinda, October 10
The mystery over the identity of the murdered girl whose body was found in a secluded hut at a farm on Monday deepened with the police today recovering the girl whose body it was said to be.

Even the girl's father had identified the body to be that of his daughter and the revelation came as a stunner for the family even as queries over the identity and whereabouts of the dead girl are yet to be answered.

SSP Sukhchain Singh Gill even held a press conference in the evening to clear the air but many questions remained unanswered.

The SSP said it was a case of mistaken identity as the father had failed to identify his daughter and considered the dead girl to be his daughter Amritpal Kaur. The girl was said to be missing since last Tuesday.

The body of the girl found in a hut at a farm on Bir road owned by a farmer Teja Singh was cremated yesterday amidst confusion after some relatives called the family and said they had spotted their daughter in Amritsar.

"My subordinates informed me that the missing girl had been spotted in Amritsar by some relatives. I immediately ordered that the body should not be cremated," said the SSP. Gill said the girl's family refused to go and spot the missing girl in Amritsar.

"We were in a Catch-22 situation and consequently, we allowed the family to cremate the body as they had identified it in the presence of two witnesses and completed all the formalities," said the SSP.

An MBBS doctor himself, the SSP said, "I asked that the dead girl's hair and tooth samples be preserved for the DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) test. The samples of cloth and all the other things found with the body were also kept in safe custody."

Gill claimed that even if the body has been cremated, it will not affect the investigations in the murder case.

SHO UC Chawla, later talking to TNS, said those rounded up in connection with the murder have been let off as the matter has taken a new twist. "Our aim now is to identify the girl whose body was found," he said.

Queries remain

• How did the police manage to trace the girl today within no time after reaching Amritsar? The police claims to have recovered the girl from the Golden Temple within hours after leaving Bathinda in the wee hours today.
• The police failed to clear the mystery as to whom did the girl call up in Bathinda using a mobile phone to reveal her location in Amritsar. The police claims that the girl called up a neighbour using someone's mobile phone.
• Who were the people rounded up or arrested by the police in connection with the murder.
• What was the girl's reason for leaving the house of her parents? Police says the girl is of a religious bent of mind and stayed in a gurdwara near the Golden Temple and was found sitting there.
• Who was the girl cremated by the family members?

Faridkot kidnapping
Street plays seek support for tomorrow’s bandh
Balwant Garg/TNS

Faridkot, October 10
While members of the action committee, formed to seek justice for a kidnapped minor girl, are holding public meetings to make the bandh on October 12 a success, a large number of girl students are staging "Begmo Di Dhee", a famous Nukkad Natak (street plays) of Gursharan Singh alias Bhai Manna Singh to urge the people to lend support for the bandh.

In their street plays, the students are seeking to portray the problem of skewed sex ratio in Punjab. The kidnapping of the girl and the dubious role of the police explains why the parents prefer male child over female, sing the students staging the play.

Door-to-door campaign and formation of mohalla-level committees and sending SMS are the tools on which the members of the action committee are relying upon to send their message.

There are messages for the government employees also to give symbolic support by taking leave on October 12.

Even the District Bar Association in Faridkot today announced its support for the bandh call.

The rising tide of public protest in the kidnapping case has increased after the police released photographs of the girl, claiming she had eloped and had not been kidnapped.

Earlier, in statement recorded with the police on August 10, days before she was kidnapped, the girl had alleged that the accused Nishan Singh had forcibly taken her photographs as a bride and was forced to sign blank papers.

But now the police are relying on these photographs and letters to paint the girl in a poor light, said Gurdit Singh Sandhu, a member of the action committee.

Drama festival in Abohar concludes with comedy play
Our Correspondent

Abohar, October 10
The three-day drama festival concluded at the DAV College auditorium last night with the staging of the comedy "Bapu Jammey Char Nikammey", by the Creative Arts Society. The hour-long laughter session was directed by Vimal Middha with Sagar Kathuria, Lovish Phutela, Prashant Gupta, Ritesh Goyal, Lovish Baghla, Jyoti Narula, Virender Doda, Pankaj Narula and Arshpreet Singh playing different roles in the play.

Superintendent of Police (SP) Varinder Singh Brar, DSPs Raj Kumar Jalhotra and Gurpreet Singh Dhindsa, district BJP president Sita Ram Sharma and Mohinder Singhmar presided over the different sessions. Surinder Narula conducted the proceedings.

The viewers appreciated the artists for their excellent performance. The script sought to depict the changing lifestyle of the youth.

World Mental Health Day
Mental diseases considered a taboo
Balwant Garg
Tribune News Service

Faridkot, October 10
The tendency to brush cases of mental illness under the carpet still exists and visiting a counsellor or psychiatrist to seek help is almost considered a taboo. Though a large number of patients who suffer distinct changes in their personality, cognition and behaviour have started visiting psychiatrists at the Guru Gobind Singh Medical College and Hospital (GGSMCH), the flip side of the problem is that a majority of them are from urban areas and economically well-off families.

Mental problem still takes a backseat in the rural areas, particularly among the poor. So there are cases in the rural areas when stripped of dignity and love, people are kept in captivity, left shackled in a dark and dingy room.

So the research parameters in government hospitals and medical colleges, adopted by various studies and surveys, lack uniformity in the definition of mental disorders and their results are not the true reflection of the actual prevalence of the problem, said the doctors, participating in an awareness programme on World Mental Health Day today at the GGSMCH.

"Mental illness is a big problem in our culture, in fact, any culture. So, there is an urgent need to seek professional help for it," said Dr SS Gill, vice-chancellor, Baba Farid University of Health Sciences (BFUHS), while participating in the awareness programme.

Dr Harish Arora, a senior psychiatrist at the GGSMCH, said about 100 patients report at the OPD of the psychiatry department in the medical college. These cases are possibly far lower than the actual incidence of the diseases as for a large number of patients, mental illness is not a medical problem, he said.

"In the last six years, over a dozen patients were rescued from captivity in the rural areas by the District Red Cross Society. They showed tremendous improvement after their release and treatment," said Dr Harish Arora.

Occultism, quackery and wrong treatment is mainly responsible for the problem in the rural areas for such cases, said Dr Arora while recalling the case of boy of Marhak village in Faridkot who was kept in chains for over 12 years and was rescued by the Red Cross Society at the age of 23 years.

For over 12 years, Malkit Singh was chained inside his house after a wrong prescription of drugs by a quack in the village played havoc with his childhood.

More trouble awaits Abohar MC president
Our Correspondent

Abohar, October 10
Nine councillors of the SAD-BJP alliance have submitted a memorandum to the Director, Local Bodies Department, for convening a meeting of the local Municipal Council to table a no-confidence motion against president Shivraj Goyal of the BJP.

The signatories to the memorandum, Geeta Chaudhary, former president, Mahila Morcha, Gurmeet Kaur, former vice-presidents Swaran Lata and Kaushal Pihwal, Ravi Makkar, Kamal Nagpal, Surinder Vij, Ramesh Dhaulpuria and Boota Singh claimed the MC president had lost the trust of most of the councillors.

At the last meeting of the council held on September 5, as many as 21 members had expressed lack of trust in him and refused to confirm the proceedings of the meeting held in the end of April because of which the annual budget too could not be passed.

In another development, the condition of councillor Boota Singh deteriorated as he continued to stage dharna along with the representatives of some NGOs demanding the removal of the MC president. The dharna has been going on for the last 10 weeks.

A team of doctors from the Civil Hospital treated him but he refused to be hospitalised.

Safai karamcharis gherao police station

Muktsar, October 10
A large number of activists of the Safai Karamchari Union today gheraoed the Malout city police station demanding the immediate arrest of those involved in the disappearance of their colleague Shiv Charan.

“A complaint in this regard was lodged with the city police on July 13 but nothing has come out as of now. Irate over this, we lodged a protest outside the police station today,” said Mangat Ram, district president, Safai Karamchari Union. The state president of the union, Om Parkash, also accompanied the protesters.

Prem Singh, SHO, Malout city police station, said, “The accused would be nabbed soon.” — TNS

200 kg poppy husk seized

Abohar, October 10
The Abohar police seized 200 kg of poppy husk by intercepting a Honda City un-numbered luxury car near Seetogunno. SP Varinder Singh Brar said the Seetogunno police post in-charge Amarveer Singh intercepted the car following a tip-off but its occupants managed to flee by stopping the vehicle ahead of the police naka. The contraband was packed in 10 bags.

Later, the Wahabwala police led by SHO Jitender Singh arrested one of the culprits, Gaura Singh of village Bahadurkhera, while efforts to nab the others are in progress.

The seizure is the biggest since the meeting of senior police officials of Punjab, Rajasthan and Haryana at village Badal. — OC