NEIGHBOURHOOD

All set for ZP elections
Parmod Mehta

Zirakpur, May 18
High drama was witnessed on the Zirakpur-Ambala highway when a Haryana Roadways bus hit a scooter-borne woman near Singhpura village turn and after which some people damaged the bus by pelting stones about 10 pm here today.

The woman has been identified as Ratinder Kaur, a resident of Panchsheel Society. Ratinder was rushed to the Government Medical College Hospital, Sector 32, Chandigarh, where her condition is said to be critical.

Immediately, after the incident, the onlookers started pelting stones at the bus and blocked traffic on the busy highway. Long queues of vehicles were seen on the both sides of the highway. The police reached the spot immediately.

The area station house officer, Tarlochan Singh, said the driver fled from the scene.

"We are taking action not only against the driver of the bus but also against those who have damaged the roadways bus following the incident," said Tarlochan Singh.

Fatehgarh Sahib, May 18
Goods worth lakhs of rupees were destroyed after a fire broke out at a mini mall in Mandi Gobindgarh town today early morning. The fire was noticed about 6 in the morning.

Sources said it took six hours for the fire department to control the fire. Additional Deputy Commissioner, MS Jaggi, along with other officials rushed the spot and directed the officials from adjoining districts to send their fire fighting engines. The fire fighting arrangements of the richest Municipal Council of the state were exposed when water pipe of the lone fire tender started leaking. The fire staff, too, did not have fire fighting equipments, due to which they could not enter the basement of the store.

The boundary wall of the shop was broken after which the fire control operation was started. It was after the intervention of the ADC that the fire tenders from adjoining areas Sirhind, Khanna, Rajpura, Ambala and Samrala were pressed into service.

While talking to the media persons, Mangat Ram, owner of the mini mall said that his son noticed smoke from the basement of and raised the alarm. He said people gathered in a large number and started dousing the fire. There was a huge stock of all type of goods, toys and other items. The goods worth lakhs of were destroyed and the exact cause of fire could not be known, he added. 

Patiala, May 18
Government Senior Secondary School, Civil Lines, Patiala, students stole the show in the district by bagging eight out of 14 merit positions in the Class XII results of the Punjab School Education Board the results of which were declared today. Its students bagged top two positions in the district.

Chandni, the daughter of a lineman working with the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited, secured first position in Patiala district with an overall rank of 15. Mandeep Kaur Sohi and Amandeep Singh of the same school bagged second place in the district with a state ranking of 16. Gurtaaz Singh of Mohinderganj School in Rajpura is third in the district with a state ranking of 17.

Other students who made it to merit list are Komalpreet Kaur, Kanchan Rani, Dimple Sharma, Preeti and Simranjeet Kaur from Government Senior Secondary School, Civil Lines, Patiala. Chamkaur Singh and Gursewak Singh of Government Multipurpose School for Boys, Patiala, ranked second and third, respectively, in the vocational stream throughout the state.

Zirakpur, May 18The stress has been said 
to be the main reason behind the suicide of 20-year-old Lovepreet Kaur, who had committed suicide on Friday by jumping from the sixth floor of Rishi Apartments in Zirakpur.

Baljinder Singh, uncle of the victim told the police that Lovepreet was living with her family here and preparing for BA I exams. But suddenly, she missed an exam on May 17 and remained tensed about it which became the reason of her suicide.

On the basis of his statement, the police took an action under Section 174 of the IPC. Meanwhile, doctors of the Civil Hospital, Dera Bassi, said that she died of head injuries.

The body of the victim has been handed over to her relatives after conducting the postmortem examination.

Ambala, May 18
Agitated relatives of Ashok Kumar, who succumbed to his injuries after being discharged from the hospital, demonstrated against a doctor of the Civil Hospital, Ambala City, for his negligent attitude here today.

Ashok, a resident of nearby Kaulana village was injured after he was beaten mercilessly by some persons last night. He was rushed to the Civil Hospital. A doctor of the hospital, who was on duty, discharged him after giving preliminarily treatment. Ashok, later, died late night at his residence. His relatives alleged that Ashok had sustained some serious injuries even then he was discharged from the hospital. The police has registered a case of murder against the assailants.

A case of negligence in duty was also registered against the doctor. A panel of doctors of the hospital conducted the postmortem examination. Meanwhile, the doctor, who had attended Ashok said he was discharged from the hospital after the consent of his relatives.

Chandigarh, May 18
The court of Judicial Magistrate, Chandigarh, Dr Ashok Kumar, today dismissed the plea of Hyderabad-based promoters of Deccan Chronicle Holdings Limited (DCHL) and other company officials seeking exemption from personal appearance in the cheque bounce case amounting to Rs 6 crore.

The court also dismissed the application moved on behalf of the company seeking appointment of its legal representative instead of the managing director of the company. Further, the court issued fresh non-bailable warrants against the officials and set July 30 as the next date of hearing.

The present legal case commenced last year after four cheques issued by the company in favour of Religare Finvest had bounced, following which the latter moved to the court to seek the relief.

After the legal petition, summons were issued against all directors of DCHL, including vice-chairman-cum-director and authorised signatory PK Iyer, but none of them have so far appeared before the court.

Chandigarh, May 18
The incident of two ITBP personnel arrested for depositing cash Rs 3,06,500, out of which 65 currency notes amounting to Rs 65,000 were found counterfeit, has brought the role of several ITBP officials posted at the paramilitary force’s basic training centre in Panchkula and Jalandhar under the police scanner. The said amount was being deposited in the accounts of 18 under-training recruits.

Head constable Nain Singh and Company Hawaldar Major Amar Singh were produced in the court today and have been remanded in the police custody for four days.

Nain Singh, head constable of the ITBP, was arrested by the police yesterday when he came to deposit the cash at the State Bank of India, Airport Station 3 BRD, Chandigarh, and the counting machine installed at the bank detected the fake currency. During interrogation, the head constable disclosed that he received the amount from Amar Singh, following which he was also arrested.

Sources said during the interrogation, Nain and Amar disclosed that they had received the cash from ITBP officials of Jalandhar for depositing it in the accounts of 18 under-training recruits, who were being imparted training at the Panchkula centre. Nain and Amar were given instructions to deposit the salaries of the recruits in their accounts in the SBI.

Sub-inspector Raghbir Singh, investigation officer of the case, said the 18 recruits were attached with the ITBP centre in Jalandhar and they had come for training at the Panchkula centre.

Panchkula, May 18
In yet another fraud case, four persons have been booked for allegedly preparing a false general power of attorney and impersonating the owner of land in Pinjore.

Two persons identified as Balraj and Krishan Lal have been arrested by the police while the other two identified as Sanjeev and Billu are still at large. It was on the complaint of Naresh Batra, the original owner of the 52 bigah that a case was registered at the Pinjore police station. The land was in Abdullahpur village of Pinjore. Deputy Superintendent of police Vijay Kumar said, “We have arrested two accused and the other two will be arrested soon.” —TNS

Chandigarh, May 18
A local tennis player and CLTA trainee, Sabrang Sandal, defeated Digvijay Pratap Singh in the finals of the AITA Tennis Tournament for boys (U-14) at the Maharaja Ranjit Singh Tennis Complex, Amritsar.

He claimed the title after beating Digvijay 1-6, 6-4 and 6-4.Sandal lost the first set 1-6 before winning the next two.