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Fatehgarh Sahib, January 2
Three persons were arrested for possessing 700 sedative capsules and for indulging in gambling in various parts of the district.

The accused have been identified as Girdhari, a resident of Sirhind; Amar Nath and Sandeep, both residents of Bassi Pathana.

SSP Hardial Singh Mann said after receiving the information, the police had laid a naka near the Shiv Temple at Sirhind and recovered 700 sedative capsules from them.

A case has been registered under Sections 22, 61 and 85 of the NDPS Act.

The SSP said a raid was conducted at Bassi Pathana and some persons were found involved in gambling. He said the accused, Amarnath, was arrested near t-point at Dholewal and Rs 270 recovered from him.

In another case, the police has arrested Sandeep Kumar, alias Kali, and recovered Rs 350 from his possession. A case under various Sections of the Gambling Act has been registered against them.

Meanwhile, the police has arrested Balwinder for involving in the sale illegal liquor and recovered nine bottles of liquor from his possession.

A case under the Liquor Act has been registered against him at the Fatehgarh Sahib police station.

Fatehgarh Sahib, January 2
The under construction four-lane road on the Rajpura-Ludhiana Highway claimed lives of two youths late last night when their scooter fell from the bridge, which was yet to be barricaded. The victims have been identified as Gunjan Singh and Kuldeep, both residents of Jharkhand.

According to sources, the police had received information at about 9 am that a scooter had fallen off the under-construction bridge into a "khud" near Malikpur village and the bodies were also lying nearby. The police immediately reached the place and recovered the bodies of the youths .

Gurmeet Singh, SHO, Sirhind, said Gunjan Singh was a student of a college at Mandi Gobindgarh. His landlord Somnath told the police that Gunjan and his cousin Kuldeep had taken his scooter as they wanted to go for dinner. The SHO said the bodies of the victims had been sent for a post-mortem. —OC

Mohali, January 2
One of the five accused in the case of the suicide of Excise and Taxation Officer Ranjit Singh has been arrested.

The accused, identified as Paramjit Singh, a resident of Tiba village in Ludhiana district, was later sent to judicial custody. Raids were being conducted to nab the remaining four suspects.

Ranjit Singh’s widow, Manjeet Kaur, meanwhile said that the arrest was “merely an eyewash”. She demanded the arrest of SP Amandeep Kaur. Manjeet said she would stage a dharna in front of the SSP’s office tomorrow to protest against the failure of the police to arrest the SP.

ETO Ranjit Singh was arrested by a vigilance team headed by Amandeep Kaur on March 29 last year, after he was allegedly caught taking a bribe to release goods of a trader. He allegedly committed suicide on April 22 at his Phase 2 residence here.

Majeet Kaur said her husband had been implicated in a false case that led to his suicide.

Those booked include Amandeep Kaur, SP, Vigilance Bureau; havildar Harminder Singh; Rajinder Singh; Rajiv Sood and Paramjit Singh.

Chandigarh, January 2
The police has arrested the three persons, including an engineering student, who stole Rs 2.8 lakh from a petrol pump at Sector 21 on the night of December 30.

The accused have been identified as Abhijeet, a student of industrial engineering and a resident of Sector 15; Monty Richard, a resident of PGI campus, and Chetan, a resident of Mohali.

The police has recovered Rs 1.35 lakh of the total stolen amount from 
the accused.

The three accused, who are allegedly drug addicts, had gone to the petrol pump to refuel their new Maurti Alto car. On finding the workers sleeping, they stole the cash from an almirah.

One of the workers woke up in time and raised an alarm, but the three managed to flee.

Panchkula, January 2
As many as 15 persons were robbed of cash and jewellery by two unidentified persons at Chauki village near Chandimandir today. They were offered some ‘laddus’ as prasad, which were laced with sedatives A case has been registered under Sections 328 (causing hurt by means of poison) and 380(theft) at the Chandimandir police station.

The two robbers had a friendly conversation with the victims before robbing them. When Bansi Ram, Raju and Jagdish gained consciousness, they realised that all their family members were lying unconscious and all the jewellery and cash were missing. Gold jewellery and cash worth Rs 2.5 lakhs have been looted.

Bansi Lal said, “ After I ate the ‘prashad’, we fell unconscious. After some time when we gained consciousness, we saw all the family members were lying unconscious and all the valuables were missing.”

The victims were rushed to the General Hospital, Sector 6, Panchkula. The condition of some them is serious. Deputy Commissioner of Police Nazneen Bhasin reached on the spot immediately.

According to the victims, the youths had told them that they were earlier living in Mauli Jagran but since their shops were removed by the corporation they shifted to this village to run a cigarette and egg shop.

When contacted, SHO of the Chandimandir police station, Inspector Satish Kumar said, “ The miscreants won the victim's faith before robbing them . We have registered a case and the youths will be arrested soon.”

It is for the second time that such a horrifying incident in the last two days. Yesterday, two miscreants at Sakteri near Mansa Devi Complex, Panchkula, robbed a family of jewellery and cash after holding a six-month-old baby girl at knifepoint.

Chandigarh, January 2
National badminton coach Pullela Gopichand during his maiden visit to city beautiful today interacted with the budding badminton players of the city. The former international player enthralled the budding players with his experiences of the game.

"Addressing the young generation is always a pleasant experience, especially after Olympics. I have a lot of experiences to share with these young players. The game is slowly gaining popularity and hopefully these young players will keep on serving the nation with their best performances," said Gopichand.

Talking about the nation's badminton status, he said: "I am happy that we are having a good bunch of players both in men and women category. The players ageing between 22-24 years are performing well and I am looking forward to the upcoming tournaments. The tournaments, including All England Ranking tournament and World Series Ranking Tournament are the important tournments," said Gopichand.

He said, "The recent feat in Olympics and Common Wealth Games is turning out to be a real boost for the game. A layman started taking the game seriously and parents now want their children to play the game. The number of trainees here in this only court is among the live example of the game's popularity."

As a player, he won the All England Open Badminton Championships in 2001 and became the second Indian to achieve this feat after Prakash Padukone.

He said, "Serving my country through the game was my dream. As a player, I always believed that we have got the best infrastructure and we should nurture our skills with what all we have. There are some shortcomings but one should always remain motivated towards the game. I always guide players to remain happy with whatever they have."

He was awarded the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award for the year 2001.and he was awarded the Padma Shri award in 2005. On hogging the limelight in recent controversies, over running a private training academy, he said, "I don't want to comment over it."

When asked if this will affect the sports, he said, "As something gains popularity it is expected to be surrounded with controversies. As a coach, I always suggest players just to concentrate on a good game; diet and practice. Rest, I don't want to comment on any controversy."

While interacting with budding badminton players , he suggest them to concentrate more on courts instead of video games and have a proper diet.

Mohali, January 2
Rail Coach Factory beat Namdhari XI by 13-8 to clinch the title of the Olympian Dharam Singh Memorial Hockey Tournament today.

The wining team was awarded Rs 31,000 while the runner-ups team received Rs 21,000.

From the wining team, Simardeep Singh scored five goals in 4th, 5th, 23rd, 24th and 26th minute while Gurpreet Singh scored six goals in 7th, 8th, 17th, 26th, 29th and 30th minute of the match. Deepak and Sandeep scored one goal to seal team's victory.

On other hand, the Namdhari XI reduced the margin through Sher Singh, who scored three goals in 16th, 17th and 23rd minute for the team. Gurpreet scored two goals in 4th and 24th minute and Dilbag Singh scored two goals in 19th and 28th minute. Swinder Singh scored a lone goal in the 27th minute of the match.

Chandigarh, January 2
The local tae kwon do players clinched medals in the recently concluded 27th National Tae Kwon Do Championship held at Ahmedabad (Gujarat).

Fateh Singh Brar and Rajeev bagged the silver medal while Vansh Bhardwaj, Yadvinder and Bajrang Bahadur won bronze medals during the championship.—TNS