Ambala, October 27
A minor girl, student of class VI, has been allegedly repeatedly raped by a married person at Ambala City. It came to light when the girl got pregnant. Sources said the victim is a resident of Balmiki Colony and studying in a local school. She belongs to a poor family. Her father is not alive and her mother has been sick for a long time.

When the girl complained of pain in her stomach to her grandmother yesterday, she was taken to the local Civil Hospital, where the doctor informed them that the girl was pregnant.

Later, the girl disclosed the story of her sexual exploitation to her grandmother.

She said a married youth of the nearby area had been sexually exploiting her for the past several months. She alleged that she had not disclosed it to her family members because the youth had been threatening to kill her if she revealed it to them.

Her grandmother told the police who brought the girl to the Civil Hospital

Karnal, October 27
The Karnal police has booked a sarpanch for allegedly sexually exploiting a widow and also indulging in unnatural sex for more than two years on the promise of marrying her.

The police registered a case against the accused sarpanch, Joginder Singh, of Kheri Shurf Ali village in Assandh subdivision under Sections 376, 377, 506 of IPC and on charges of threatening to kill on the complaint of the widow.

A resident of Ram Nagar in Karnal, the victim in her complaint said her husband had died of some disease two and a half years ago. They have three children.

The sarpanch sexually exploited her on the promise of marrying her.

She said Joginder Singh, who married his sister-in-law after his first wife died, told her that he had no issue and promised to marry her. She claimed that Joginder Singh had even promised her a share in the property, but he evicted her from the house eight days ago.

The widow lodged a complaint of sexual exploitation with officials of the anti-corruption cell, who approached senior police officers and a case was registered. The police has started investigations in the case but no arrest has been made so far. The medical examination of the widow has been conducted and the report is awaited. 

Fatehabad, October 27
Running from pillar to post in quest for justice, the 13-year-old rape victim’s father was last night hospitalised a second time in a span of 10 days with severe depression and some other related symptoms.

The victim’s father was shifted to the Community Health Centre at Ratia, where the doctors said he was suffering from loose motions, vomiting and depression.

“We have given him intravenous drips and are watching his condition. He is stable now,” said Dr Deepak Sharma at the hospital.

Earlier, the victim’s father was shifted to a private hospital in Ratia on October 18 with complaints of severe depression. The victim’s father in his complaint to the police has demanded the registration of an FIR against the sarpanch and six teachers, who, he alleged, were instrumental in removing the rape victim as well as his two other daughters from the school after the fact of sexual assault on her came to light.

The accused, he alleged, were now trying to gag him and stop him from giving statements to the authorities during inquiries.

The station house officer said the police had received the complaint and was examining the allegations.

The 13-year-old girl was allegedly raped for five months by a sexagenarian at Khai village and while the sarpanch tried to “compound” the crime for Rs 35,000, the school showed the door to the victim and her two sisters for the fear of “bad effect” on other girls.

District Education Officer Manju Gupta had not find any fault on the part of the school authorities, while the District Child Protection Officer said in her inquiry that the victim’s father had alleged that he was forced to take away his daughters from the school.

Subdivisional magistrate Harish Bhatia, who has conducted an inquiry on the orders of additional deputy commissioner Rajiv Rattan, is yet to submit his report. 

Karnal, October 27
An infant baby girl was today found abandoned in a pothole along the railway line near Tarauri station. The child was recovered by the Railway police which has registered a case.

A railway employee heard the cries of the infant baby girl lying in the pothole along the railway line. He took the infant and reported to the railway police.

The police sent the child to the hospital where she is under the care of a railway policewoman. Doctors said the girl was a few hours old and in good condition in spite of the severe cold in the morning. Investigation officer of the railway police Laxmi Chand said the police was trying to trace the mother of the girl. About two months ago, an infant girl child was found abandoned in a goods train. 

Chandigarh, October 27
In a special drive for candidates belonging to the Scheduled Castes, the Haryana government has decided to fill 168 posts of medical officer belonging to this category in the Health Department.

Stating this here today, the director-general health services, Dr Narinder Arora, said the applications had been invited from eligible candidates for recruitment. All posts would be reserved for Scheduled Caste candidates belonging to Haryana.

Faridabad, October 27
A man today murdered his brother’s 14-year-old granddaughter at the local Parvatia Colony and later killed himself here. While the victim girl, Soni, was a Class VIII student, the deceased, Jeetender Singh was a native of Garhawal district of Uttaranchal. He committed suicide by jumping before a train near the Bata Chowk overhead railway bridge.

The police said the deceased was staying with his brother’s son, Arjun Singh, for the past few days. He was an employee with Lakhani Group here, but had lost his job about two months ago. Subsequently, he went to his native village.

He had returned from his native village recently to settle his accounts with the firm where he was employed. Hence, he was putting up at the residence of his brother’s son. The latter’s wife, however, has been out of station for the past few days.

The police added that the deceased and Arjun Singh had their meal, cooked by the victim girl, together in the house.

After serving the meal the girl went to sleep. Having done with the meal Arjun Singh left for his work place. Finding the girl alone in the house, the deceased hit her on her head. He left the house after locking it from outside. He went to the railway track where he committed suicide. The police found the address of Arjun Singh from a note found on his body. The girl was found to be dead in the house. The police said the post-mortem report attributed the girl’s death to brain haemorrhage.

Chandigarh, October 27
The Hooda government's tendering process for the award of the Rs 300-crore contract for the augmentation of the water supply in Haryana has come under a cloud with six leading manufacturers of the ductile iron (DI) pipes raising a finger at the award of the tender to Jindal Saw Limited (JSL).

In a memorandum to Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, six leading DI pipe manufacturing firms -- Tata Metaliks Limited, Electrosteel Castings Limited, Electrotherm (India) Limited, Jai Balaji Industries Limited, Rashmi Metaliks Limited and Lanco Industries Limited -- made allegations of several irregularities in the finalisation of the tender in favour of JSL by the high-powered purchase committee at its meeting on October 8 here.

"While letters were sent to all bidders to be present, they were not called in front of the committee members to present their case," the memorandum said, demanding a review of the annual rate contract to the single party for timely completion of the critical drinking water projects.

Jai Balaji Industries and Electrotherm were called later to negotiate prices for higher sizes for which JSL had not quoted rates.The decision on sizes from 100 mm to 1000 mm had already been taken by the committee in favour of the JSL. "It is apparent that the decision to award the annual rate contract was taken in an arbitrary manner with a mala fide intent to favour a chosen party," the memorandum alleged.

The memorandum questioned the rationale of awarding the annual rate contract to the single firm as last year, five firms, including JSL, could not supply material worth Rs 500 crore in time. This time, the total value of the annual rate contract is expected to go up to Rs 700 crore against the backdrop of several ongoing water augmentation schemes in the state.

JSL could barely manage the supply of material worth nearly Rs 5 crore per month from May to September against the required rate of Rs 25 crore per month. Now the supply of the pipes would be worth about Rs 50 crore per month, the manufacturers said. "The state's interests would be safeguarded if uninterrupted supplies are ensured by having more parties," they said.

Kurukshetra, October 27
Inaugurating the four-day Haryana Day state-level festival “Ratnawali-2012” of Kurukshetra University at the university’s auditorium here today, chief guest Lt Gen Dr DDS Sandhu, vice-chancellor of KU, said, “The KU is doing all efforts to preserve and promote the culture of Haryana. Ratnawali helps in preserving the age-old performing genres of saang and folk music of stalwarts like Pandit Lakhmi Chand, Guru Maan Singh, Ramkishan Byas, Khema Ji, Dhanpat Ji, Chander Baji and many more folk artists,” said Sandhu.

Anoop Lather, director of the Youth and Cultural Affairs, KU, said, “Starting in 1966 and extended in 1984 as Ratnawali, it has today all forms of art.”

More than 3,000 participants from all over Haryana are participating in this gala event.

The following are the results of the competitions held:

Haryanvi pop song: 1. Government College for Women, Karnal, 2. SD College for Girls,Narwana, 3. DAV College for Girls Yamunanagar and UTD Kurukshetra

Haryanvi Bhajan: 1. UTD Kurukshetra, 2. DAV College for Girls, Yamunanagar, 3. IG Mahila Maha Vidyalaya, Kaithal

Haryanvi Speech: 1. Rajni of UMPG College, Hansi, 2. Jyoti of Janata Vidya 
Mandir Charkhi, Dadri, 3. Sanjay Kumar of PG College, Hisar.

Sirsa, October 27
A stray bull took a life when it attacked a pedestrian in Sirsa. The victim, Mahinderpal (33), was seriously hurt in the attack on October 21, when he was returning home in the evening. He was being treated in a private hospital in Hisar, where he succumbed to his injuries today.

The victim’s body was taken to the General Hospital for a post-mortem examination. 

Sirsa, October 27
The police today booked the victim’s husband, mother-in-law and father-in-law for assaulting and harassing her for dowry.

The victim, Manjit Kaur, has alleged that an attempt was made on her life by strangulating her. She was shifted to the General Hospital last night. Manjit Kaur was married to Gurdev Singh of Mirzapur village in Sirsa and has a 11-month-old daughter.

She alleged that her in-laws had been harassing her ever since she gave birth to a girl child and now they had started demanding a car and 25-tola gold. She said her husband and in-laws tried to strangulate her with a cloth last night.

The police has registered a case under Sections 498-A, 323, 506 and 34 of the IPC.

Jhajjar, October 27
A soldier of Azad Hind Fauj, Patram Singh (95), was cremated with full state honours at Badhsa village under Bahadurgarh subdivision here today. Patram breathed his last at a hospital in Delhi yesterday.

The pyre was lit by his son Ramphal. The police fired gunshots in the air as a mark of respect to the departed soldier. Badli MLA Naresh Sharma, Tehsildar Surender Verma, Sarpanch of Ranvir viilage and representatives of various organisations also paid tribute to the departed soul by laying wreath on his body.

On the call of Subhas Chandra Bose, Patram joined the Azad Hind Fauj to free motherland from the rule of Britishers. He remained imprisoned in jails of Malaya, Singapore and Rangoon for about four years and freed by British rulers in 1947.