Chandigarh, May 18
The CBI DIG, Mahesh Aggarwal, had allegedly leaked the information of a raid by the Delhi CBI at the residence of former Union Railways Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal’s nephew Vijay Singla in Sector 28. A CBI Inspector posted at the Chandigarh office has levelled these allegations against Mahesh Aggarwal in his affidavit submitted before the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT).

The CBI Inspector, Balbir Singh, who had challenged his transfer orders, has submitted before the tribunal that DIG Mahesh Aggarwal was allegedly responsible for leaking the information of the CBI's raid at Vijay Singla’s residence on May 3.

Balbir Singh’s affidavit, submitted before the CAT, reads: “The involvement of Respondent no. 3 (which is DIG Mahesh Aggarwal) in the leakage of the trap, which was laid in a case involving Vijay Singla (Railway bribery case), and the raid was delayed by three or four hours and in the meantime, the evidence was destroyed by the Respondent no. 3 (DIG Mahesh Aggarwal), due to his friendship with Vijay Singla”.

Mahesh Aggarwal denied all these allegations and said there were serious complaints against Balbir Singh. Therefore, he was transferred. On the CBI’s raid, he said it was the Delhi CBI’s raid and no information was leaked. More importantly, it was a successful trap. The Delhi CBI has already issued a statement to the media that there was no leak of information in Chandigarh, he added.

Meanwhile, former Union Minister and senior BJP leader Harmohan Dhawan, at a press conference held today, alleged that Mahesh Aggarwal also pressurised the CBI officials to clear the name of MC Joint Commissioner in a corruption case, in which Balraj Singh, a patwari of the Municipal Corporation, was arrested on February 13 this year while allegedly accepting illegal gratification.

The CBI officer, Balbir Singh, who was also part of the raiding team, has also stated before CAT that he was transferred as he did not yield to pressure by Mahesh Aggarwal, who wanted to exclude the name of MC Joint Commissioner Rajiv Gupta, who is either related or known to Mahesh Aggarwal, from the patwari graft case.

In this case, the CBI has filed a chargesheet in the CBI court against Balraj Singh. The CBI gave a clean chit to Rajiv Gupta, as there was no evidence against him.

Gupta said the complainant's case file pertaining to the demand of illegal gratification had never reached him. Patwari had named him just because he wanted to increase the amount of bribe. There was no evidence against him, Gupta added. 

Mohali, May 18
Despite having good infrastructure and teachers, Mohali district fared poorly in the Class XII results of the Punjab School Education Board (PSEB), which were declared today.

Only four students from the district could make it to the board’s overall merit list (OML), which has 336 students from Punjab and other states. As many as 136 students from Ludhiana district figure on the merit list.

Even Barnala district, which had earlier remained at the bottom of the pass percentage list of all the districts, has seven students on the overall merit list. From Fatehgarh Sahib district, nine students have made it to the list while from Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar, a total of eight students figure on the list.

The number of students from Barnala, Fatehgarh Sahib and Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar, who took the examinations, was less than that from Mohali district.

Mohali district remained at number 13 on the list, sharing the slot with four Ropar, Pathankot, Kapurthala and Bathinda districts.

As many as 9,197 students had appeared for the examinations from the district, of whom 6,863 passed with the pass percentage of 74.62.

The position of Mohali district is also unimpressive if one goes by the ‘list of district-wise pass percentage’. Mohali comes at number 19 among a total of 22 districts. Hoshiarpur is at the number one slot with a pass percentage of 84.87, followed by Fazilka (83.88) and Tarn Taran (83.73).

Only three districts, Gurdaspur (69.31%), Moga (68.99%) and Barnala (68.40) come after Mohali on the pass percentage list.

Notably, there are 214 government schools and 479 private schools in the district, of which several schools boast of having the latest infrastructure like smart classes.

Meanwhile, Punjab Education Minister Sikandar Singh Maluka said he was unhappy with the performance of Moahli district. “I admit that there is no improvement in results here. I know that several teachers here are ‘sifarshi’ (recommended), who had used their influence to remain here. After going through the details of each school here, I am going to take strict action this time. They (the teachers) should be ready for transfers now,” said Maluka.

Chandigarh, May 18
A team of the Delhi police today visited Hotel JW Marriott in Sector 35, where the IPL teams stayed during their visits to Chandigarh. The police seized the records of the guests that had stayed in the hotel on May 8 and 9.

Sources said the team from Delhi reached the hotel in the morning in connection with their ongoing inquiry into the incident of spot fixing and stayed for around two hours. “A team of special cell of the Delhi police took along the records of the guests who had stayed in the hotel on both the days,” said police sources.

Officials from the Chandigarh police also accompanied the Delhi police to the hotel.

Sources said the guests staying in the rooms close to the team are under suspicion and the permanent addressed furnished by the guests to the hotel will be verified. “The Delhi police has also taken the CCTV footage of both the days from the hotel authorities to establish who all went to the floor on which the players of Rajasthan Royals (RR) were staying,” sources said.

RR had reached the city on May 8 for the match against Kings XI which was played on May 9. The three players of RR including Indian pace bowler S Sreesanth are already under arrest for the spot fixing.

The Delhi police also went to the PCA Stadium in Mohali as part of their inquiry. 

Chandigarh, May 18
A 10-year-old girl, Kajal, who suffered an injury after robbers opened fire on the Jan Sewa Express yesterday, had not been provided any medical aid by the railway authorities for more than an hour. Adding to her family's woes, no Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel came to help them at the Rajpura station where the train halts for only two minutes. The family managed to get medical aid for her after half an hour when the train reached the Ambala station.

The girl’s father, Munish Kumar, said his daughter was out of danger. She was operated upon by the doctors at the Government Medical College and Hospital, Sector 32, last night.

Ironically, eight RPF personnel, who were deployed on the train, were clueless about the robbery even though the robbers had fired into the air thrice. A bullet splinter hit the girl in the stomach. Interestingly, the police came to know about the robbery, which happened between Sirhind and Rajpura, after the other two injured passengers alighted from the train at the Rajpura railway station. Rather than inspecting the coach where the incident took place, the RPF staff talked to passengers when the train reached the Ambala station.

Mohali, May 18
As many as 1,330 police personnel have been deployed in Mohali district in connection with zila parishad and panchayat samiti elections scheduled to be held 
tomorrow.

Giving details about the deployment of the police force today, Gurpreet Singh Bhullar, SSP, said that three SPs, six DSPs, 19 gazetted officers, 437 havildars, 727 constables and 138 home guards had been put on poll related duties.

Apart from this, 20 patrolling parties would be active and six of these had been kept in the reserve and would be pressed into service wherever required. More force had been stationed near sensitive and hyper sensitive polling booths, said Bhullar. Deputy Commissioner-cum- District Election Officer Tejinder Pal Singh Sidhu said that 444 polling booths had been set up for the elections and employees had already left to take charge of the polling booths. As many as 2,627 employees had been sent on poll duties and another 665 had been kept in the reserve. Fifty supervisors would also function who would keep coordination with presiding officers. —OC

Panchkula, May 18
In a major development in the Jyoti murder case, Doon MLA Ram Kumar Chaudhary’s wife Nidhi in her police interrogation did not cooperate much with the police officials and preferred to remain monosyllabic. To all the questions asked by them, she just replied ‘No’.

“When we asked her whether she had a conversation with the maternal uncle regarding purchasing Buti Ram, she blatantly said ‘No’. Similarly, when we asked her whether she threatened Jyoti, she again replied No,” said a police official.

Following her non-cooperation, the police has now requested the court to allow them take voice samples of Nidhi so that they may match her voice with those in the conversation. Nidhi has been summoned by the court.

The police officials are yet to interrogate Nidhi’s maternal uncle and ‘Joshi ji’ whose transcripts have been attached with the charge sheet filed in the case.

It was recently when the Special Investigation Team has issued fresh summons to Nidhi. The summons was issued under Section 160 of the CrPc.

Chaudhary has been accused of killing a 24-year-old girl Jyoti who hailed from Hoshiarpur.

Meanwhile, Satish Kaushal, who owned the mobile shop from where Doon MLA procured sim cards on fake documents, has been arrested by the police. The Commissioner of Police, Rajbir Deswal, has confirmed his arrest.

Panchkula, May 18
Over 20 candidates filled their nomination today at the Mini Secretariat sector 1 Panchkula for the MC elections. While two of them were from political parties, others were independent candidates.

Sub Divisional Magistrate RK Singh said that they were reviewing all the details of the nominations being filled and the administration was ready for the elections of the Municipal Corporation.

Regarding the declaration of sensitive booths, Singh said, “We have asked the police department and the list will be finalised soon. The deployment of force will be made accordingly,” said Singh.

Also failing to get recommendation from BJP, a candidate joined Congress today to contest elections. Though the Congress won’t be fighting on party symbol yet as many as 13 of them openly declared that they are Congressmen but would be fighting independently.

MLA DK Bansal was also present on the occasion. The Indian National Lok Dal also released its list of 20 candidates who will be representing them. 

Chandigarh, May 18
Considering the latest spot-fixing as the biggest pustule on cricket, Flying-Sikh, Milkha Singh, condemned the incident and blamed the allegedly involved players for tarnishing the image of cricket. Milkha Singh at the district courts, for the hearing of golf club brawl said, “What we have earned after a dedication of 12 years, they wanted to grasp in a year. Shortcuts are always dangerous and I am shocked with their steps. How can a person cheat his job? And a job, where all eyes, trust remains on you. In our nation, a player of cricket is pampered like a day-old-baby and even then these players have all the courage to cheat their fans, franchisee and above all the game. I am not against cricket. But the players should change their approach,” said Milkha Singh.

The former international sprinter also demanded that the players should be put under a life ban from representing the nation in cricket and also in all major tournaments. While talking to The Tribune team, he added, “Their punishment should become an example for others. They should be put under a life ban and all the facilities given to them should be withdrawn immediately. If they deserve to be treated well, then they should also be punished well, if found guilty,” said Milkha.

Mohali, May 18
Congress MLA Balbir Singh Sidhu along with his about 200 supporters blocked the Balongi-Kharar highway at 11.30 pm alleging that the Mohali police was targeting Congress activists to discourage them just before block samiti and zila parishad elections tomorrow.

Talking to the Chandigarh Tribune, Sidhu said the police picked up Baljit Singh, a very staunch and influential Congress activist from his house at village Thaska tonight. "The police picked up Baljit Singh without any fault but just to harass him and other party workers. They (the police) are supporting the ruling party and acting against us so we have blocked the highway in protest," alleged Sidhu. On getting information, the police also reached at the spot. The blockade was continued till the filing of report. — TNS

Mohali, May 18
Hundreds of people from various parts of the state gathered at Daun village here to pay their obeisance to religious guru Baba Balbir Singh, who passed away in the wee hours today.

People in a large number started gathering at the village as soon as the news of Baba Balbir Singh’s death spread. Notably, Baba Balbir Singh had a large following in the region and many people used to gather here on every Sunday.

Several leaders including former Union Minister, Balwant Singh Ramoowalia, the area MP Ravneet Singh Bittu, Mohali, MLA Balbir Singh Sidhu and Kharar MLA, Jagmohan Singh Kang, reached at the spot. MLA Sidhu also sent a communiqué to the Punjab Chief Election Commissioner to postpone the election in the Daun zone, which are scheduled to take place tomorrow. “Tomorrow certain religious ceremonies related to Baba’s cremation would take place here so the election should be postponed here,” demanded Sidhu.

Chandigarh, May 18
The investigation conducted by the Chandigarh police into the death of Sharmila Gupta has recommended departmental inquiry against assistant sub-inspector (ASI) and three women constables. Meanwhile, a show cause notice to Station House Office inspector Sri Prakash has also been recommended in the probe.

The victim, Sharmila Gupta, a resident of Nayagaon, was riding a Honda Activa scooter when a CTU bus hit her on the slip road near Home Science College on May 7. It was alleged that there was a delay on the part of PCR staff in rushing the victim to the Government Multi-Specialty Hospital (GMSH), Sector 16, which was a few metres away from the accident scene.

The inquiry that has been conducted by UT Superintendent of Police Arun Kampani has pointed out towards delay in lifting the accident victim.

ASI Satinder Singh, investigating officer of the case, reached the spot and kept waiting for the SHO of Sector 3 police station.

Arun Kampani in his inquiry report has mentioned that the PCR staff should be trained to handle accident spots and how to lift the accident victims.

Chandigarh, May 18
City-based Desh Bhagat Community Radio FM station has moved to a new frequency of 107.8 FM from 90.4 FM earlier.

Dr Zora Singh, chairman, Desh Bhagat Community Radio, said the changeover was in response to listeners seeking better signal and connectivity.

“Lots of listeners were sending in their feedback that they were having difficulty in its reception. So, the matter was taken up with the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and it allotted us a new frequency to ensure better coverage, signal and connectivity,” he said.

Desh Bhagat Community Radio has been broadcasting programmes for the welfare of the community living within the transmission range (10-15-km radius) since November 2012. Most of its programmes are produced by the members of the community themselves.

Chandigarh, May 18
The special CBI court of Vimal Kumar fixed June 3 to start arguments for the framing of charges against Justice Nirmal Yadav (retd) and other accused in the 2008 cash-at-judge’s-door scam.

Anupam Gupta, special public prosecutor for the CBI, informed the special judge that the Punjab and Haryana High Court, while dismissing the revision petition of Justice Yadav, had allowed her 15 days time to inspect the record relating to the sanction of her prosecution and further directed the trial court to hear and decide on the question of framing of charges within the next fortnight.

In compliance with the High Court’s order, the special judge today set down the case for arguments for the framing of charges on June 3.

Justice Yadav as well as two other accused - Sanjeev Bansal, former law officer, Haryana, and Rajiv Gupta, Panchkula-based property dealer - did not appear for hearing today. All three sought personnel exemption for diverse reasons, which was allowed by the court.

Anupam Gupta also informed the court that he would file the CBI’s reply to Sanjeev Bansal’s application for discharge before the next date of hearing. Bansal had moved the application seeking discharge from this case on February 19.

On the other hand, Justice Yadav’s counsel informed the court that she proposed to file a Special Leave Petition in the Supreme Court against the High Court’s order.

Under the Code of Criminal Procedure, the framing of charges is the first important stage of the criminal trial. Once the hearing starts, the public prosecutor will open the arguments and substantiate the case against the accused with reference to the evidence collected during the investigation, which has already been filed with the chargesheet in this case.

Mohali, May 18
Three engineering students of different private colleges in the area were killed when the motorcycle they were riding was hit by a trailer from behind on the Kharar-Landran Road near Chappar Chirri yesterday night.

The deceased have been identified as Gaurav Kumar, Sanjiv Kumar and Kishore Kunnal, all hailing from Bihar. Sanjiv was a student of the Chandigarh Group of Colleges at Landran, while the other two were studying in Quest Engineering College at Sawara village.

According to sources, the trio died on the spot and the trailer driver fled from the scene after the incident.

The students were riding triple and without helmets when the incident took place.

Randhir Singh, a private security guard of a factory, informed the police about the incident. Kishore Kunal was the only child of his parents.

The police said postmortem of Kishore and Gaurav had been conducted at the Civil Hospital, Phase VI, today. As nobody from Sanjiv Kumar’s family has reached so far, his postmortem would be conducted tomorrow.

The police has registered a case under various sections against unidentified driver of the trailer at Sohana police station here.

Chandigarh, May 18
Taking a serious note of the cheating scam in MD/MS entrance exam, the PGIMER authorities have made stringent security arrangements at 12 centres where the exam is going to be conducted in Chandigarh tomorrow.

The spokesperson for the PGI said all security arrangements, including body frisking, scanning through bug detectors, mobile jammers, photography and biometric finger print capturing, had been made by the authorities at all centres.

The spokesperson said the candidates had been instructed to enter the examination centre till 7.30 AM. Frisking of all candidates would be carried out at the entry of the examination premises. Photography and biometric finger print would be done during the examination and 10 minutes extra time would be given to the candidates. The candidates would be provided with a ball pen by the institute in the examination hall.

Chandigarh, May 18
Mismanagement ruled convocation rehearsals of the Panjab University’s law department as the students had to wait for more than three hours for something that did not take place.

The students were asked to report at 3 pm for registration. Then they had to wait for the rehearsals till around 6.30 pm. But they were told to leave hours after they were hurriedly informed about the seating arrangement for the convocation day.

A registered candidate said the students started reaching for the rehearsal from 2.30 pm and after getting registered were told to wait for the rehearsals. "We were asked to get the robes from the department opposite the Gymnasium hall and asked to wait. We kept waiting till around 6.30 pm. Then we were given the sitting order following which we were asked to leave and reach the venue on Sunday at 9 am", said the student.

The delay apparently led to many students leaving the venue without even bothering about the assigned sitting order.

A faculty member from the department said although a committee of teachers from the law and University Institute of Legal Studies (UILS) was formed to organise the convocation, the teachers were not assigned any duty.

"The teachers are also confused about their duties as no duty chart has been prepared by the department", said a teacher.

Chairperson of the law department Nishtha Jaswal also did not take part in the rehearsal.

Dean Law GK Chatrath said registration and verification of the numbers to be given to the students took time which led to the delay.

Chatrath said, "The students were given the sitting order for the convocation which is the only part of rehearsal. Making students walk on the stage according to the seating order does not come under rehearsal for convocation following which we didn't made students go through that exercise." After a gap of over two decades, law convocation is going to be held at PU on May 19.

Chandigarh, May 18
A craft workshop for children, “Think out of Box”, where they learnt to create useful things with the help of paper, was conducted by a 12-year-old girl, Veda Filosofia Singh Heemskerk, today.

The event was organised by Fab India.

Children learnt the art of making beautiful and useful things with paper. “We are going to organise more workshops for the children. Anyone interested in getting enrolled at the workshops can contact us,” said a Fab India spokesperson. 

Mohali, May 18
Arshdeep Kaur Batth was on cloud nine after she came to know that she was the topper of the Mohali district in Class XII result of Punjab School Education Board, today.

Arshdeep Kaur, a medical student of Government Girls Senior Secondary School at Gharuan village, has secured 94.44 per cent marks and 11th rank in the overall merit list (OML) of the board.

In the entire state, she finished at 11 spot in the science stream.

The other three girls, who brought laurels to the district, by remaining in the merit list included Manisha Rehal (94 per cent, rank 13 in OML), a science student of Government Girls Senior Secondary School at Kurali; Kiranjit Kaur (93.56 per cent, rank 15 in OML), a science student of Government Senior Secondary School at Kharar and Rajinder Kaur (92.67 per cent, rank 19 in OML), a science student of Government Girls Senior Secondary School at Kurali. Manisha and Kiranjit Kaur remained second and third in the district.

Arshdeep Kaur, while talking to Chandigarh Tribune, said that she was missing her father, Kuldip Singh Batth, who was on election duty at Falana village in Fatehgarh Sahib. A daughter of lecturer parents, Arshdeep Kaur too, wants to be a research scholar or teacher. "I want to be a research scholar in medicine or a teacher like my parents. I do my study regularly which is the key to my success," said Arshdeep Kaur. She said that she would celebrate her success tomorrow when her father returns back from his duty.

Shockingly, no student from Mohali town, which has several top class private schools having advanced infrastructure and top facilities could make it to the OML. All the four girls in the OML from the district are students of government schools.

Chandigarh, May 18
The Institute of Electronics and Telecommunications Engineers (IETE) observed 45th World Telecommunication and Information Society Day here today by organising a series of invited lectures on contemporary technical issues.

Dr Pawan Kapur, council member, IETE, and former director, Central Scientific Instruments Organisation, Chandigarh, highlighted the importance of the day and discussed applications of information and communication technology in improving road safety aspects. Raminder Kaur, assistant director, BSNL, Chandigarh, and Dr Neeleesh Kumar, senior scientist, CSIO, discussed the role and applications of information and communication technology in society. — TNS