NEIGHBOURHOOD

3 killed in accidents
Our Correspondent

Fatehgarh Sahib, July 20
Villagers and Congress workers of Talania village today blocked the Sirhind-Morinda road causing a traffic jam for about two hours. They took this step due to the delay in the construction of an overhead tank in the village.

Led by Manjeet Kaur, wife of MLA Kuljeet Nagra, hundreds of Congress workers and villagers gathered on the state highway and raised slogans against the Akali-BJP government for obstructing the construction work in the village.

She said the construction work of the overhead tank was started on July 12 after MLA Nagra got the grant sanctioned from the Centre. However, the Akalis started raising hurdles in the development works, she alleged.

Manjeet said the ruling government’s claim that the development works would be carried out without any bias had been exposed. She alleged that the Akalis were creating obstruction to lay claim over the development works.

Meanwhile, denying the claims of the Congress, Harinder Singh Chandumajra, senior Akali leader, said the development works were being carried out without any bias and Nagra was creating hurdles in the development works by organising dharnas. He said Rs 35 lakh were being spent on the construction of the overhead tank and an amount of Rs 75 lakh was being spent to set up 5 tubewells in Talania village to provide potable water to the residents.

The police teams led by SDM Puja Syal also reached the site to pacify the agitating villagers and assured them that the work would be started soon.

Ambala, July 20
Special Judge Fast Track Court, Ambala, Vimlesh Tanwar, has awarded eight-year sentence to a resident of Karnal here today. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 4,000 on him.

According to the prosecution, the accused, Bhushan had raped a woman of Babial village near Ambala Cantonment, after giving her some sedative substance in the cold drink at his residence. The accused also threatened the victim of dire consequences, if she would disclose the matter to her relatives.

On the complaint of the victim, the police had registered a case under Section 376 of the IPC against the accused on January 5, 2011.

Ambala, July 20
The Naraingarh police today registered a rape case against five youths on the complaint of a girl. The victim is a Class XII student. In a complaint filed with the police, the victim said on July 17, the youths took her to Solan and one of them raped her there. Her parents reported the matter to the police.

The police has registered a case under Sections 363, 366, 376 and 120B of the IPC against Sanjeev, Jahangir, Bittu, Ashwani and Sandeep.

Dera Bassi, July 20
A medical and dental check-up camp was organised by Sukhmani Multi-Specialty Hospital & Dental College, Dera Bassi, along with the support of Winsome Yarns Ltd, Saidpura, Dera Bassi.

Nearly 450 patients were examined and diagnosed by a team of doctors. The vice-president of the company addressed the workers and a lecture on health was also delivered by the doctors of the dental college. — OC

Sirhind, July 20
A girl and a boy went missing after their car fell into the Narwana branch of the Bhakra Canal near Sanipur village this evening.

The girl, Kirandeep Kaur, is a resident of Khanna while the boy, Nagender Singh (22), is a resident of Kurali.

The incident came to light when diver Ashu Malik informed the police that a Skoda car had fallen into the canal. The police reached the spot and a rescue operation was launched.

DSP Hardevinder Singh said the diver told the police that he had seen the two sitting in the car (PB 65N 0189).

The boy's father, Balvir Singh, said his son had told him that he was going to a mall and did not know how he had reached the Bhakra Canal. The boy is a civil engineering student at Nagender DAV College, Jalandhar. He said he came to know about the incident after the police informed him that a Skoda car had fallen into the canal.

Chandigarh, July 20
Continuing with its arguments on the framing of charges in the judge bribery case, involving Justice Nirmal Yadav (retd) as the accused, the defence counsel today told the court that hotelier Ravinder Singh's name featuring in the registry of the Solan land deal was not some other Ravinder Singh or ‘dummy purchaser’ as claimed by the prosecution. It was also pleaded that the then Chief Justice of India had declined permission to investigate alleged irregularities in the Solan land deal in the grant for prosecution sanction. It was pleaded that the Himachal Pradesh Government had given a clean chit to Justice Nirmal Yadav while investigating the Solan land deal and thus no case against her was made out.

Hotelier Ravinder Singh, who is an accused in the case, had said he had sent Rs 15 lakh to former Punjab and Haryana High Court judge Nirmal Yadav on August 13, 2008, for the purchase of land in Solan, Himachal Pradesh.

The CBI, however, had said it was some other Ravinder Singh, a Panchkula resident, whose name featured in the registry and he never went to Solan and did not even sign the GPA. Today, this was countered by the defence counsel, who stated that Ravinder Singh's Delhi address had been given in the affidavit as his alternative address.

The defence counsel pleaded that apart from Ravinder Singh, there were at least three independent witnesses who said Ravinder Singh had sent Rs 15 lakh towards his share for financing the Solan land deal.

There was not a single call exchanged between accused Sanjeev Bansal and Justice Nirmal Yadav as claimed by the CBI, the defence counsel added.

The arguments by the defence counsel will continue on Monday in the CBI court.

In August 2008, a case was registered under various sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act against Yadav and Ravinder, along with Sanjiv Bansal, former additional advocate-general of Haryana, Rajiv Gupta, a Chandigarh-based businessman, and one Nirmal Singh.

The case was initially registered by the UT police on August 18 after Rs 15 lakh, allegedly intended to be delivered to justice Yadav, were delivered by mistake at the residence of justice Nirmaljit Kaur, another High Court judge, on August 13, 2008. The case was subsequently handed over to the CBI.

The prosecution had said the packet containing Rs 15 lakh was delivered to the judge for delivering a property-related judgement in the accused’s favour.

Chandigarh, July 20
A local court today extended police custody of accused Sukhbir Shergill, who is allegedly involved in a Rs 125 crore fraud, by four days. Sukhbir's wife and another accused in the case, Gurbir Shergill, has been sent to 14 days' judicial custody.

Officials of the Economic Offences Wing of the police today told court that the accused were not cooperating with them and they needed more time to investigate the case. The remaining accused in the case are still at large. They can be arrested on Shergill's interrogation and thus his further police remand is required, they told the court.

A year after registering the case of fraud, the Economic Offences Wing of the UT police had arrested Sukhbir Shergill and his wife Gurbir Shergill after laying a trap in Bhathinda on late July 17 night.

The two had been on the run since March this year after their bail plea was rejected and non-bailable warrants were issued against them.

The accused Sukhbir Singh Shergill and his wife Gurbir Kaur Shergill are secretary and vice-chairperson, respectively, of the SAS Institute of Information Technology (Mohali).

Two other accused in the case, Jatinder Singh Dua and Sagar S Dua, owners of hotels at Sector 35 and Sector 8, respectively, have absconded along with five others.

The police has registered a case of forgery of valuable securities, criminal breach of trust and misappropriation of company funds worth Rs 300 crore in April last year against a total of 13 accused.

The complainant, Raman Uppal, has alleged that Shergill cheated him of crores of rupees during the opening of a company, Customer Related Management Services, in Sector 9 here.

Chandigarh, July 20
The Punjab Kick Boxing Association felicitated state’s kick boxers, who excelled at various national level competitions, today. The award ceremony was presided over by Sushil Kumar, wrestler and silver medallist of 2012 London Olympics. As many as 104 kick boxers and coaches of the state were honoured. The young kick boxers, were eager to get the grappler’s autographs. Punjab Kick Boxing Association president Garima Singh said it was the third year in which the association was honouring the players who did well for the country at international and national meets.

Chandigarh, July 20
The Chandigarh Golf Association will launch the CGA Juniors' Programme soon.

The programme will support junior golfers from the tricity.

The CGA has decided to provide scholarships to the junior golfers based on the previous year ranking of the Indian Golf Union.

The main objective of the scheme is to improve the competitive spirit among the young golfers and to help their overall development.

The scholarship will be made available to the junior golfers, who are below 18 years of age (boys and girls both).

Those who qualify for the scholarship, will be given the advantage of the scholarship under certain terms and condition.