Chandigarh, February 20
The court of Sessions Judge SK Aggarwal today imprisoned a 60-year-old former scientist with the Central Scientific Instruments Organisation (CSIO) till the rising of court in a case of sexual harassment. The accused, Piyush Kumar Awasthi, was also imposed a fine of Rs 2 lakh, which was given as compensation to the complainant for the harassment and trauma she faced. The case of sexual harassment was registered in 2003 and the sessions court gave the verdict in the appeal case today.

The accused was made to stand in court for the entire day till 4 pm as the Sessions Judge upheld the order passed by a lower court in July 2009 and convicted him.

The accused also gave in writing during the court hearing that he was guilty and would not repeat his mistake. He gave a cheque for Rs 2 lakh in the name of the complainant following court orders.

The case was registered on October 23, 2003, when a woman employee, who worked as a technical officer with the CSIO, reported to the police that she was being teased, assaulted and threatened by her colleague, Piyush Kumar, for the past three months.

In her complaint, the 43-year-old woman said she was an employee of the CSIO since 1977 and Piyush Kumar (aged 50 years at the time the case was registered) tried to outrage her modesty. She said she was being harassed from April to June 2003 when she reported the matter at the Industrial Area police station. The police then marked an inquiry and a case was registered in October that year when Piyush Kumar was arrested.

The victim said in her complaint that he used to follow her to her home and passed lewd remarks at her. The court of then JMIC Manisha Jain, after finding the accused guilty, convicted him in July 2009 and sentenced him to two years' rigorous imprisonment. Piyush Kumar had filed an appeal before the sessions court, which was decided today with the court directing him to pay a fine and stand till the rising of the court.

The accused was made to put in his papers by the CSIO and was given compulsory retirement after the case was registered.

Panchkula, February 20
A 25-year-old college student died and his friend got seriously injured after the motorcycle they were riding on was hit by an unknown vehicle on National Highway 73 near Mauli village here.

The victims were rushed to the General Hospital, Sector 6, where NK Praveen Reddy, the only son of a Colonel, was declared brought dead. His friend Yashveer Raghav was referred to the GMCH, Sector 32, Chandigarh.

The youths were pursuing MDS course at Swami Devi Dyal College, Barwala. They were on their way to the college hostel after meeting friends when the accident took place. “A passer-by informed us that two youths were lying in a pool of blood on the road,” said Inspector Satish Kumar, Station House Officer of the Chandi Mandir police station.

Reddy’s family, classmates and teachers were in an inconsolable state. His father, who is posted in Chennai, reached here after the news was broken to him.

The police has registered a case of death due to negligence under the Section 304-A of the IPC.

Mohali, February 20
An immediate phone call made by one of the contract killers to the key accused, BJP leader Rakesh Mehta, led the police to establish Mehta’s involvement in the crime. Mehta has been arrested along with other three contract killers, namely Jang Bahadur, Sandeep Sonu and a minor on the charges of murder of Rajesh Bittu, here.

Mehta had been absconding since last Thursday, when Bittu was brutally murdered by the trio at the behest of Mehta, near his residence at Preet Nagar, Dera Bassi at around 10 pm on Thursday night. The attackers had hit Bittu’s head and face repeatedly with baseball bats and bricks and he succumbed to his injuries before reaching the Government Medical College Hospital, Sector 32.

According to sources, after the attack, Jang Bahadur had made a call from his mobile phone, number 8968025025 to Mehta’s mobile phone, number 9417686303 to inform him about the progress

The Special Investigation Team (SIT), headed by SP (Headquarters), Darshan Singh Mann, zeroed in on the call by Jang Bahdur to Mehta. The call details of Jang Bahdur further raise suspicion on Davinder Sonu, a student of a private college at Dera Bassi and also a neighbour of the deceased, as several calls were exchanged between the duo during the past few days before the murder of Bittu.

Mohali SSP Gurpreet Singh Bhullar said, Mehta, who had an old enmity with Bittu, hired the contract killers for Rs 1.5 lakh. While two of the contract killers, Jang Bahadur and Sonu are 19-years-old, the third one is a minor. All are residents of Dera Bassi.

“Jang Bahadur, Sonu and another accused Mangu were also involved in damaging the car of Bittu on January 15. They had damaged the Bittu’s car at the behest of Mehta. In the preliminary inquiry, it has come to light that Mehta had given them Rs 1.5 lakh to the trio to teach him a lesson”, said Bhullar.

Notably, Mehta joined the police investigation last night after remaining absconded for the past five days. “After establishing his involvement, we made his arrest”, said SSP Bhullar.

Earlier, Mehta was named as the prime accused along with six other persons, Joga Singh, Rakesh Bansal, Shiv Chand Tony, Harbhajan Singh, Gurmail Singh and Ranbir Singh in the FIR, lodged on the complaint of kin of Bittu at Dera Bassi Police Station.

The SIT in charge Darshan Singh Mann said, "the role of the other six persons, mentioned in the FIR has already been probed thoroughly. All of them, except Shiv Tony, had joined the police investigations earlier. We didn’t find involvement of any of them so far. In fact name of any top leader of the ruling party of the area has not even surfaced during our investigations”.

When asked whether or not it was first crime of the contract killers, Mann said that investigations were on. “The histories and roles of all the accused are being probed thoroughly and the report would be submitted to SSP in four-five days”, he said.

SSP Bhullar said, the murder was a result of old enmity between Bittu and Mehta. “Both were also found to be involved in various court cases against each other. Mehta’s name is already there in two different crime cases”, added Bhullar.

Panchkula, February 20
After 10 days of struggle for life, 50-year-old Jagdev who was hit by a bus, succumbed to injuries this morning at the general hospital, Sector 6, Panchkula. It was on February 11, when Jagdev was going for work on his bicycle, on the road separating Sector 4 and Sector 5. A speeding private bus hit him from rear, which resulted in serious injuries to Jagdev. The victim was rushed to general hospital Sector 6, Panchkula, from where he was referred to PGI, Chandigarh. However after his condition became stable, he was again admitted to the general hospital.

"He was fine last night but in the morning the doctors said that he could not be saved", said Vicky, a relative. He further added, "We have lost the bread-earner of our house. The driver should be given strict punishment".

When contacted Deepak Kumar, Station House Officer, Police Station, 5, he said, "The driver was arrested on the day of the incident but he was later released on bail, by the court". — TNS

Chandigarh, February 20
The soccer side of SHSM Khalsa College of Education, Mahilpur, defeated Department of Evening Studies, Panjab University, by a solitary goal during a match of the inter-college football for men (evening and education colleges) being held here today.

In the second match, LLRM College of Education, Dhudike, registered a 6-0 win over GHG Khalsa College of Education, Gurusar Sadhar.

Chandigarh, February 20
Reacting to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs’ (MHA) claims that the Chandigarh Golf Club (CGC) has sufficient funds to pay lease money, the club management stated that having enough funds did not mean that the Administration could levy higher lease amount.

“If the club had no corpus or were low on funds would the administration had given us discounts in the lease terms too?”, the club management questioned.

Chandigarh Golf Club captain Sandeep Sandhu said discussions between MHA and UT officials about the funds that the club has fixed deposits of Rs 13 crore are factually wrong. The club has assets, including course machinery, maintenance equipment, electrical fittings, furniture, putting greens etc., to the tune of Rs 13 crore, he said.

Sandhu demanded that the fixation of lease should be on parity with other golf clubs like Delhi Golf Club, which has a much larger area and more prime land and yet pays substantially less lease amount.

In a letter issued by the Administration, the club was asked to deposit Rs 9.27 crore by January 16, 2012. The lease period was proposed for five years only with an annual enhancement of 7 per cent in the rent. The lease was to become effective from March 16, 2008. Presently, the matter is pending in the Punjab and Haryana High Court. 

Mohali, February 20
The Shivalik Public School, Phase VI, organised annual sports meet “Come Out And Play” here today. Students participated in track and field events. 

Students of Classes I and II performed drills using props like balls and ribbons. They also participated in 100 m race, hurdle race, tie your shoe laces, book balancing and sack race.

Chandigarh, February 20
In the ongoing inter-NITTR annual sports meet, carrom player Kamlesh Batra defeated Mandakini Mahurkar at 21-06, 24-06, to bag first place in the women’s category here today. In the doubles’ women event, Kamlesh Batra and Dr Maitreeye Dutta beat Manadakini and Vinny Verma by 25-09, 22-05.

Results: Chess (Men)- RK Dixit (NITTTR Bhopal), S Raj Shekhar (NITTTR Chennai), Y Das (NITTTR Kolkatta) Chess (Women)- Shobha Lekhwani (NITTTR Chennai), Santosh Kumari (NITTTR Chandigarh), — TNS

Chandigarh, February 20
The canoe team of Punjab won three medals in the recently concluded 23rd National Canoe Sprint Championship, held at the Komlakhong Water Sports Complex, Mayang Imphal.

The team won two bronze medals and a silver medal. Jagroop Singh won a silver medal while Karan Singh and TH Neel Kanta Singh won bronze medals in 200m and 500m Caone sprint event, respectively. Naveen Kumar and Gimnar of Punjab have been selected for the National Slalom camp to be held at Bhopal from March 11 to 27.