Accused gives handwriting samples in Hindi: ‘Ghee se jyot jalao’

Doon MLA RK Chaudhary being produced in a court in Panchkula. A file photograph

The Doon MLA was brought to the court on Friday to take his handwriting samples in Hindi. He has already given 20 sheets of handwriting samples in English. Chaudhary was made to write sentences in which the names "Shanti and Jyoti" appeared several times. Five sheets of handwriting samples in Hindi were taken. Among the sentences written by the MLA were "Ghee se jyot jalao, Shanti me hi Shanti hai, Shanti Devi Jyoti se achi hai, Shanti or Jyoti behne hain".

Call details In 500 pages

As many as 500 pages of the chargesheet comprise just the call details of the victim and the accused, Ram Kumar Chaudhary. Chaudhary reportedly used to talk to her on the phone quite often using a number which he had taken from a sim card dealer on fake identity proofs.

Cops face Judge's ire

The Panchkula police had to face the Judge's ire for not providing requisite copies of the chargesheet. The Judge said the fact that she was on leave didn't mean that the police could mislead the court by giving just two copies of the chargesheet despite the fact that there were 10 accused in the case.

Panchkula, April 5
The Doon MLA and his wife Nidhi thought money power would help bail them out of the crisis after Jyoti's murder. However, money did not come to their rescue.

Chaudhary wanted to use money to "plant" his driver/personal security officer Satpal, alias Satta, in the murder case. According to the chargesheet, Chaudhary admitted that he had offered Rs 25 lakh as a one-time payment and a monthly income of Rs 10,000 to Satpal if he agreed to take upon himself the charge of killing Jyoti. However, Satpal got scared after reading newspaper reports and quit the job.

“In order to escape arrest in the murder case and seeking anticipatory bail, I used his name intentionally, saying that he had relations with Jyoti. I even offered Rs 25 lakh and a monthly income of Rs 10,000 to him. However, he just disappeared. He did not like the deal,” the chargesheet has quoted the MLA as having said.

On the other hand, Chaudhary's wife Nidhi tried to “buy” Jyoti’s parents by offering money. The chargesheet, with which the police has attached a transcript of Nidhi’s telephonic conversation with her maternal uncle, claims that she wanted her uncle to offer lakhs of rupees to the victim’s parents for keeping quiet over the issue.

In two conversations held on December 10 and 11, Nidhi was heard telling her uncle that they were ready to give as much as required. Efforts were made to woo the victim’s father, Buti Ram, and people were sent to his village to meet the sarpanch and persuade him to withdraw the case.

The transcript has quoted Nidhi asking her uncle twice to pay Jyoti’s parents Rs 30 lakh and Rs 50 lakh, respectively. The uncle has been quoted as saying that a political party had paid Rs 1 crore to Jyoti’s family to fight the case in order to defame Chaudhary.

Chandigarh, April 5
The high-profile love story between Ram Kumar Chaudhary and Jyoti started in June 2010 with a phone call made by her as an insurance agent. She called up Chaudhary and insisted him to buy an insurance policy from her.

With this call started a tale of love that ended in a gory murder. “She was pressing me to buy an insurance policy. She asked me to meet her once following which I met her in August near Fun Republic. I did not buy any policy but gave Rs 7,000 to help her. We then started meeting each other quite often,” the chargesheet has quoted the MLA as having said.

"We developed physical relations and whenever I used to come to Chandigarh, I used to meet Jyoti in my car after parking it at an isolated place. In January 2011, I even attended Jyoti’s sister Ishu’s wedding with Rajender, alias Pappy, at Hoshiarpur. I don't what Jyoti told her family about me," the MLA reportedly said.

Chaudhary’s intimate relations with Jyoti led to her pregnancy, claims the chargesheet. “Jyoti and I developed physical relations, and in July 2012, she told me that she was three weeks' pregnant. By that time, she got to know everything about me and my family. I got scared and that was the time when I was gearing up to contest the Assembly elections from the Doon constituency in Himachal. On August 7, I took Jyoti to IVF Hospital, Sector 20 D, Chandigarh, and got her foetus aborted,” the MLA reportedly said.

In July-August, Chaudhary even got around Rs 1.5 lakh transferred to Jyoti’s account. Fearing that his reputation would be maligned, he requested the doctor at the hospital to write his name as Ramesh Kumar Sharma in the hospital records. “After the abortion, Jyoti started troubling me on the phone and forced me to meet her. I was so busy with the elections that I could not give time to her and she started threatening me, saying that she would spill the beans,” the chargesheet has quoted the MLA as having said. It was after this that the murder conspiracy was hatched.

Panchkula, April 5
After Jyoti’s murder, MLA Ram Kumar Chaudhary’s brother Dharampal tried to garner support of a close friend to bail out his brother from crisis.

It is evident from a transcript of a telephonic conversation between Dharampal and a man named Joshi that he tried seeking the latter’s help.

In the transcript of the conversation that took place four days after the murder, Dharampal was recorded telling this friend that Ram had landed himself in trouble in Panchkula and he needed a senior police official’s help to bail out his brother from crisis.

Transcript of Harabhajan Chaudhary (Ram’s brother) and Joshi (Dharampal’s friend)

The conversation took place just four days after the murder on November 26, 2012, at 11.52 pm.

The transcript of the telephonic conversation of the MLA’s wife, Nidhi, with her maternal uncle on December 10, 2012, at 3.22pm, when Chaudhary was evading the police.

In the conversation, Chaudhary’s wife is telling her maternal uncle to visit Jyoti’s village and involve some middlemen and send some money to Buti Ram (Jyoti’s father) and settle the case.

Chandigarh, April 5
The brawl at the Golf Club and subsequent inquiry into the case has brought to the fore the menace of betting at the city’s premier club.

While submitting the fact-finding report, two members of the probing committee have recommended that the management should look into the aspect of high -scale betting, which is allegedly prevailing, as revealed by some senior members to the committee.

"The matter is not related to the brawl and the management is not aware of any betting. The view can be taken as the personal opinion of the committee members. And the rest of the issue will be discussed in the meeting of the disciplinary committee" said Sandeep Sandhu, Captain of the Golf Club.

The members also recommended that the issue of carrying fire arms by individuals and gunman while playing on the course should also be reviewed. “It is not permitted in any sports. It is not only irritating, but intimidating for other players,” said the report. On the issue, the captain of the club said," it is already on the club's rules list that no one will carry arms inside the greens. Again this is the personal view of the members. And there is nothing new in this".

Chandigarh, April 5
Elections for the office bearers of District Bar Association were held in district courts today.

Parminder Singh Toor (president), Ranjodh Singh Sarao (secretary), Gurpreet Singh Bagri (vice-president) and Sunil Kumar Prashar (treasurer) in a jubilant mood after winning the District Bar Association elections in Mohali on Friday. Tribune photo: Vicky Gharu

Advocate Ashok Chauhan, was elected as the president of the district bar association, Chandigarh. The counting went on late till the night. Advocate Sunil Kumar was elected as the vice president, advocate Baljeet Singh was elected as the secretary while advocate Pratibha Bhandari was been elected as joint secretary and advocate Vinay Kumar has been elected as treasurer of the bar association. Advocate Vinay Kumar, was elected unopposed.

Meanwhile, elections for office bearers of bar association of Debt Recovery Tribunal for the year 2013-14 were held today.

Rabinder Singh Bhatia, was declared elected as president.

Satpal Chaudhary was declared elected as Vice Pesident, unopposed. Harinder Pal Singh, was declared elected as Secretary. Vinod Verma was declared elected as Treasurer, unopposed. Tejinder Singh and Vikas Gupta, were elected as Executive Members below 5 years, unopposed.

Chandigarh, April 5
Theft cases are on the rise in the city with the UT police registering as many as seven such cases in the last 48 hours.

Joginder Kumar, a resident of Kajheri, alleged that Sukhwinder Singh of Sector-46-D took away water taps from a wine shop (Ahata) in Sector 23. Later on, the accused was arrested. The police has registered a case of theft and trespass in the incident. Pawan Kumar of Sector 35-A reported that someone had stolen one LPG cylinder from his house.

In a separate incident, Raju of Hallo Majra, alleged that Imtiyaz, alias Babbu of Hallo Majra, Sandeep and Rokhra of Hallo Majra, took away a CD player from his car (CH-01-AJ-2762). The car was parked in front of his house. Accused Imtiyaz has been arrested.

Ramandeep Singh, a resident of Sector 20-D, reported that someone had stolen his Bullet motorcycle (PB-03R-1481) from outside Government College, Sector-46.

Kesar Singh Panwar of Sector 11 reported that someone had stolen 24 iron shuttering plates from near his residence on April 4. Kaniya Goel of Industrial Area, Phase1, reported that Ram Narain was caught stealing taps. Deepak Kumar, a resident of Khuda Jassu, alleged that someone had stolen his auto (HR68A1684) from near the PGIMER bus stop in Sector 12 on April 4. A 32-year-old man was arrested with a stolen three-wheeler.

Chandigarh, April 5
It seems that people have started taking advantage of the directions of the Ministry of Environment of Forests (MoEF) as a langur, who used to shoo away monkeys, has been taken away by some unknown persons from Sector 9.

Udham Singh, a langur, who was providing security outside a residential premises in Sector 9, was taken away by some unknown persons on the pretext of officials of the Forest and Wildlife Department of the UT Administration.

Sanawar Ali, langur handler, said he was providing security outside a residential premises in Sector 9. But suddenly, two youths came and told him that langur is a protected species, therefore, it was illegal to keep the custody of Langur.

Sanawar added that the later, when he (Sanawar) inquired from the forest department about the langurs, he came to know it was not the employees of the forest department who had taken the langur but some unknown persons.

Santosh Kumar, Chief Conservator of Forests, UT Administration, said they have not initiated any action in this regard against the langur handlers. On the issue, he said they would check from the officials of the forest department along with the office of an NGO, who works for the welfare of the animals. He assured that they do not have the custody of any langur till date.

Recently, the UT Administration had received the directions of the MoEF, according to which, under the Wildlife Protection Act-1972, langur is a protected species under Schedule II and under Sections 2, 8, 9, 11, 40, 41, 43, 48, 51, 61 and 62 of the IPC.

The Sections stipulate that langurs cannot be owned, bought, sold or hired. Any violation of this law is liable to punishable with a three-year jail term or fine or both.

Chandigarh, April 5
The arrest of a gang of thieves brought a sigh of relief to an international golfer as his stolen Bolero jeep, with no insurance cover (at the time it was stolen), has been recovered from them.

The grey-coloured Mahindra Bolero of international golfer Gurbaaz Mann was stolen last month and recovered from the Motor Market, Mani Majra, by the crime branch of the UT police.

The SUV was stolen from the parking lot of Sukhna Lake near the Chandigarh Golf Range (CGR) when Mann had gone to the golf range after parking it there on March 9. The SUV was recovered following the interrogation of the kingpin of the gang, Parveen Kumar.

Gurbaaz heaved a sigh of relief, as the Bolero jeep was without insurance cover when it was stolen. The policy had just expired and he had failed to renew it, sources said.

He told the police that he was going through a rough patch and had never thought that the jeep would be recovered so soon.

The thieves had changed the Chandigarh-based registration number of the SUV and had got a Haryana registration number for the vehicle. The vehicle was found parked in a secluded area of the Motor Market.

An inter-state gang headed by Parveen was busted three days ago and interrogation of the accused led to the recovery of 18 vehicles, including seven others that were found to be stolen from Chandigarh.

The other gang members were identified as Shamsher, Shahnawaj, Irfan and Asim. The sources said accused Shahnawaj and his son, Asim, had tampered with the registration number of the golfer’s SUV and Parveen had parked it with the intention of selling it in the Motor Market.

Mohali, April 5
Residents of Manouli village have been crying for the supply of potable water for more than a year and have failed to get relief even after making a complaint to the Chief Minister in this regard.

A letter signed by residents of the village was sent to the Chief Minister on February 28 stating that they were not getting clean drinking water. They demanded a solution to the problem at the earliest and action against the officials concerned for failing to provide potable water for such a long time.

According to sources, two tube wells were sunk in the village few years ago by the Department of Public Health. However, a water sample taken from one of these failed the potability test while the second tube well became non-functional with the passage of time.

The problem of drinking water had earlier been brought to the notice of the Punjab State Human Rights Commission (PSHRC) by Dr Jasdeepak Singh. Officials of the Water Supply and Sanitation Department had then told the PSHRC that after the sinking of a new tube well and the installation of machinery, the supply of water would be restored by August 20, 2012. Sarpanch of the Manouli gram panchayat Major Singh today said that a new tube well was sunk later by the officials concerned, but its motor was below the required capacity and it had failed to give the desired results. Residents had been compelled to install submersible pumps for getting water. As the cost of installing such a facility ranged between Rs 40,000 and Rs 50,000, everyone in the village could not afford it. Poor people had to depend on others to meet their requirement of water, leading to inconvenience for everybody. Executive Engineer Sukhminder Singh said a higher capacity motor had been installed for the running the new tube well, but it would become functional only after the Punjab State Power Corporation Ltd (PSPCL) upgrades the transformer serving the area. The load enhancement fee had already been deposited with the PSPCL, he said.

Mohali, April 5
The municipal corporation will spend more than Rs 2.17 crore to give a facelift to Mohali.

Joint Commissioner of the civic body Dilraj Singh today said that special efforts were being made to improve the look of the town as it was an entry point to the state. Various types of works were in progress and would be completed soon.

He said, “A park near the Bawa White House is being developed at a cost of Rs 20.86 lakh. Around 50 per cent of the work has been completed and Rs 10.43 had been spent on it so far. Toilet blocks in the Phase VI market are being renovated at a cost of Rs 2.73 lakh. A green belt in the Phase IX industrial area is being developed by spending Rs 11.29 lakh. Lights are being installed in another green belt in Phase VII industrial area at a cost of Rs 17.82 lakh.” The Joint Commissioner said footpaths were being constructed at a cost of Rs 30.41 lakh in Phase VII and 65 per cent of the work had already been completed. Paver blocks were being laid in some other parts of the town and streetlights being installed in Phase III of the industrial area.

Mohali, April 5
As many as 1.40 lakh children in the age group of 0 to 5 will be administered polio drops in Mohali district during a three-day campaign starting on April 7.

Parveen Kumar Thind, Additional Deputy Commissioner, who presided over a meeting of the District Task Force, said 100 per cent target of giving polio drops should be achieved during the campaign and not a single child be left out. The meeting was attended by, among others, officials of various departments, senior medical officers and representatives of social welfare organisations.

Thind said that a target of 1,40,168 children in the age group of 0 to 5 years had been fixed for giving polio drops for which 1,061 teams had been set up. Apart from this, 65 mobile teams and 24 transit teams had been formed for the campaign. As many as 12 transit booths would be set up where polio drops would be administered. Help from social welfare organisations, panchayats and youth clubs would also be taken.

He appealed to the parents of small children to ensure that they were given polio drops to save them from the dreaded disease.

During the last two years not a single case of polio had surfaced in Punjab, said Thind.

Chandigarh, April 5
Even as over 200 applicants are waiting to claim their seats under the Right to Education (RTE) Act, city-based private schools, in their meeting held today, decided to charge fee from students belonging to the economically weaker section (EWS).

The fresh move is set to create problem for the Education Department, which is already under pressure for not implementing the Act despite the three-year deadline for its compliance already over. Yesterday only, government teachers successfully managed to force the department to take back its decision on increasing their working hours, which was enforced as part of the RTE compliance.

Now, the department also seems to be loosing its ground on the issue of EWS admission at the time when 227 applicants belonging to the EWS and disadvantaged group are waiting to get admission to private schools for the new session against the vacant RTE seats. Today, they were found scrambling between private schools and DEO office for admissions after schools declined to entertain their registration forms.

DEO Ram Kumar contended that schools were given time till April 6 to admit these students.

HS Mamik, president of the Independent Schools Association, Chandigarh, said schools had no problem in enrolling these students. But since the Educating Department had already clarified that they would not reimburse the schools for 15 per cent EWS quota as mandated under the Land Allotment Scheme, the schools had decided to charge a nominal amount from the EWS students as referred in the UT’s own notification in 2005.

On the quantum of charges, Mamik said: "The schools unanimously decided to charge EWS students to the tune of 70 per cent to 75 per cent of the monthly fee fixed for general students. This percentage of our monthly fee is spent on the salary of teachers and other expenses.”

Amid the confrontation and resistance between private schools and the Education Department, it is the poor parents who are suffering.

Pawan Kumar, a parent of an EWS student, said the Education Department should not have invited applications for admissions to private schools when it could not ensure free education in these schools.

Darpan Singh, another parent, said: “A private school in Sector 38 refused to entertain his application when he went to get his children admitted to the school”.

VK Singh, Education Secretary, UT, said the Education Department was trying to convince private schools to implement the RTE Act and fill their vacant reserved seats soon.

Chandigarh, April 5
Professor Ruchi Ram Sahni, an illustrious alumnus of Panjab University, was remembered on his 150th birth anniversary today. His grandson Ashok Sahni unfolded various facets of his life during a brief lecture, “Grandfather: Leading Many Lives”, at the PU auditorium.

Ashok Sahani, grandson of Ruchi Ram Sahni, addresses a gathering at Panjab University on Friday.

During the lecture, he pointed out that Prof Sahni was a scientist, an innovator, an educationist, a devoted patriot and a social reformer.

Born in 1863, Prof Sahni was instrumental in spreading formal scientific education in the Northern part of our country. He was the first gold medallist in BA of PU in 1884. He served as professor of chemistry at Government College, Lahore, from 1887 till his retirement in 1918.

Ashok, through the course of his presentation, revealed that his grandfather was a man of independent thinking and progressive ideas.

During his lecture, Ashok mentioned that his grandfather had also served society by organising relief camps during 1905 when Kangra valley in Himachal Pradesh witnessed the devastating earthquake. Prof Sahni worked for his PhD with Noble laureates Lord Rutherford and Dr Niels Bohr at Manchester in England.

Chandigarh, April 5
The Postgraduate Department of English of MCM DAV College, Chandigarh, organised a lecture on Marxism today.

Students attend a lecture on Marxism at MCM DAV College In Chandigarh on Friday. A Tribune Photograph

Dr Anil Raina, professor and former chairperson, Department of English and Cultural Studies, Panjab University, and an author of the well-known book “Marxism and Literary Value”, was invited to deliver a lecture on the topic “Marxism and Sociological Approach to Literary Criticism”.

He delivered an insightful lecture, which comprehensively dealt with various aspects of materialist philosophy of Marxism, orthodox version, later interpretations, its major contributors and recent developments in the field. He elaborated on various concepts and terms related to the area in a lucid style.

Teachers and postgraduate students of Masters in English from various colleges of the city attended the lecture. — TNS