Hisar, February 7
A schoolgirl's gang rape by five persons has come to light at Rajli village of Hisar. The police has arrested all the five accused after the victim, a student of class 12 of the village school, approached the police with her parents late last evening.

The girl complained that a village youth, Sonu, stopped her while she was returning from the school 15 days ago and assaulted her sexually at pistol-point.

She brought the matter to the notice of her parents, who met Sonu's parents to lodge their protest.

The matter was settled after intervention of the elders.

On Tuesday, four youths, Sombir, Naveen, Vikas and Kuldeep, allegedly waylaid the girl and took her to a room in Naveen's house, where they allegedly raped her. The girl alleged that she was drugged after gang rape.

When she gained consciousness, she found herself lying outside her house.

She narrated the story to her parents, who took her to the police on Wednesday.

The police took the girl to the General Hospital, Hisar, late on Wednesday night, where her medical examination confirmed that she was raped.

Chandigarh, February 7
After a brief truce, the war of words between Haryana Speaker Kuldeep Sharma and Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC) supremo and Hisar Member of Parliament Kuldeep Bishnoi escalated today. While Sharma termed Bishnoi a ‘paper tiger’ and ‘day dreamer’, the MP called the speaker a ‘compulsive liar’ and not fit to hold the high office of the Speaker.

The trigger was provided by Sharma when he referred to Bishnoi’s letter against him to Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar, which he claimed had found its way to the Press even before it could reach Kumar. "The letter to the Speaker is just to seek cheap publicity and it proves that he was a ‘paper tiger’ and did not care about parliamentary customs and traditions,” Sharma said here today.

Ridiculing Sharma’s remarks, Bishnoi told The Tribune that an upstart like Sharma did not "deserve" the high office of a Speaker. “He is a compulsive liar and an expert in twisting my statements out of context. In fact, his below the belt and unparliamentary remarks and motivated actions, including the acceptance of the merger of five HJC MLAs into the Congress, speak volumes about his attempts at discrediting the high institution of the Speaker," he alleged.

Taking a dig at Bihsnoi’s ‘day-dreaming’ about becoming the Haryana Chief Minister, Sharma asserted that the letter depicted Bishnoi’s ‘lack of proper education’ as the Lok Sabha was not an appellate authority over the Haryana Vidhan Sabha as the latter was an autonomous legislative body.

However, Bishnoi claimed that he had written the letter to the Lok Sabha Speaker as Sharma’s remarks about an MP in January after delivering the judgement on five defector MLAs amounted to a breach of privilege. He had written the letter to request the Lok Sabha Speaker to frame a code of conduct at the forthcoming conclave of the presiding officers of the state legislative bodies, of which she was the chairperson, at Patna.

Reiterating his allegations of moral turpitude against former Chief Minister and Bishnoi’s father Bhajan Lal, Sharma claimed that Bhajan Lal was instrumental in defections of MLAs 34 times during his tenure as chief minister. Bishnoi dismissed the allegations, saying that a political lightweight Sharma had no credentials to speak against his father.

Chandigarh, February 7
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has made it clear that the proxy legal battles against the land acquisition proceedings will not be entertained. Rather, petitions purportedly filed in public interest before the high court against the land acquisition proceedings will invite imposition of fine.

A Division Bench of the high court has also ruled that it is for landowners, facing acquisition proceedings, to come forward and plead their cases before the Bench. The assertions and indications came on a PIL filed by the Jan Nayak Welfare Association, Chhattargarh, Sirsa district, against the State of Haryana and other respondents.

Taking up the petition, the Division Bench of Chief Justice Arjan Kumar Sikri and Justice Rakesh Kumar Jain observed that the prayer made in the petition was for the release of the land being acquired under the provisions of the Land Acquisition Act for public purpose.

The Bench added: “The present petition in the nature of the PIL, seeking such a relief cannot be entertained. If those persons whose land is acquired are aggrieved, they can always come forward and pursue their remedy. It is not understood as to in what manner this becomes a public interest and what is the interest of the petitioner in filing such a petition on behalf of those persons whose land is acquired.”

Coming down heavily on the petitioner, the Bench dismissed the petition but not before imposing costs of Rs 10,000 on the association. The Bench made it clear that the amount was to be deposited by the association with the High Court Mediation and Conciliation Centre. For the purpose, the association has been given two weeks.

Before parting with the order, the Bench added: “It appears that the petition is motivated and filed with ulterior purposes.”

Chandigarh, February 7
Less than 12 hours after The Tribune carried a report on the collapse of a triple-storey school building in Tohana, the Haryana Human Rights Commission today took suo motu of the cognisance of the news item and asked Fatehabad Deputy Commissioner to submit a report.

Referring to the report -- “3-storey school building collapses in Tohana” -- commission members Justice H.S. Bhalla and J.S. Ahlawat said: “The quality of construction is directly connected with the safety of citizens, if the buildings are not constructed as per norms.

“If the requisite material is not used for constructing the buildings, it will jeopardise the lives of the citizens and will affect the quality of life as defined under Article 21 of the Constitution of India. “Therefore, the Commission takes suo motu cognisance of the news item captioned as “3-storey school building collapses in Tohana” published in The Tribune, Chandigarh, on February 7, 2013.

“The Deputy Commissioner, Fatehabad, is directed to submit a report inter alia stating as to when the building plans were passed; when the construction commenced; when the completion certificate was given and who was/were the officer/officers involved in granting the completion certificate of the building in question to the owners." The commission made it clear that the Deputy Commissioner was required to send the report after getting the requisite information from the authorities concerned so that further action could be taken. For the purpose, the Commission set February 18 as the deadline.

As per the report, the building of Maharaja Agarsen Senior Secondary School had collapsed like a pack of cards on Tuesday night, when no one was present in the school. The entire three-storey building of the school, a part of which was constructed recently, came down crumbling, with a loud sound at about 10.30 pm. Within minutes, the school building was reduced to debris.

Sonepat, February 7
The marriage annulled by the 'Biradari' panchayat on Monday over a gotra dispute took a dramatic turn today when the newly wedded couple — Anil of Joli village and Seema of Umedgarh village and family members of both the families — appeared before Superintendent of Police Arun Singh today, demanding protection for them from the Biradari panchayat.

In a complaint to SP, they submitted that they wanted that Anil and Seema should live together as husband and wife and the families as well as the couple should be given security. The SP assured them that help would be provided to them.

Anil and Seema told mediapersons that they wanted to live together and they had approached the police for security in case there was any threat from the Biradari panchayat.

Anil was married to Seema on Sunday. Anil belongs to the Mehra gotra and Seema to the Sabarwal gotra. Both the families belong to the Scheduled Caste.

The marriage was objected to by families of Sabarwal gotra residing in Joli. A meeting of representatives of both the gotras along with panchayat representatives of both the villages was held at Joli on Moday and it was decided to terminate the marriage. The family members of the couple were allegedly forced to accept the decision of the Biradari panchayat.

Chandigarh, February 7
Senior IAS officer Ashok Khemka, who had kicked up a political storm alleging irregularities in Robert Vadra-DLF land deals, today alleged that vested elements were at work to mentally harass him and break him down psychologically.

He claimed that vested elements had the support of some mandarins in the government as he had exposed alleged land scams during his previous postings.

The officer also referred to the complaint lodged against him by a kin of an employee, who was allegedly dismissed by him during one of his postings six years ago.

The kin had recently complained to the DGP that her husband had gone missing and may have attempted suicide.

“The complaint was lodged saying I was responsible for the man having gone missing... they (the elements are behind this and) want to break my morale and want to shatter me,” he alleged.

After cancelling the mutation of the land deal, he had received a number of threat calls, Khemka said.

Khemka, who is currently posted as Managing Director of the Haryana Seed Development Corporation, today held a meeting under heavy police security at Panchkula with the union employees in the wake of allegations against some employees regarding seed theft and other issues. — PTI

Chandigarh, February 7
The Haryana Government has promoted eight IPS officers to the rank of Inspector General of Police (IGP) and four IPS officers to the rank of Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) with immediate effect.

Those who have been promoted to the rank of IGP included Navdeep Singh Virk, Shri Kant Jadhav, Kala Ramchandran, Anil Kumar, Kuldeep Singh Siag, Suman Manjri, Sat Parkash Ranga and Paramjit Singh Ahlawat.

Those who have been promoted to the rank of DIG included Mamta Singh, Hanif Qureshi, M.Ravi Kiran and Krishan Kumar.

Kala Ramchandran and Mamta Singh have been given proforma promotion as they are on deputation with the Central Government.

Chandigarh, February 7
The Haryana state government has revised the maintenance allowance being given to the inmates of Bal Gram, Rai, and Children Home, Madhuban, run by Haryana Raj Bal Bhawan from Rs 1,000 to Rs 3,000 per month.

Sumita Misra Director-General, Women and Child Development Department, said today this would entail an additional expenditure of Rs 45.36 lakh. There are 195 children between the age of 7-18 years staying in these two homes. Haryana Raj Bal Bhawan is a registered society.