COURTS

Financial entitlement
Adhering to HC judgment: Panel
Vivek Gupta
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 13
Following the reports that the three-member committee appointed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court, probing undue fee hike in private schools in the UT, was charging hefty amount from schools for the probe, its chairman, Justice (retd) RS Mongia, said the committee was strictly adhering to the judgment of the High Court as far as its financial entitlement was concerned.

He said: “The committee is not charging anything on its own as the High Court judgment on April 9 fixed Rs 25,000 per sitting for the committee chairman, Rs 10,000 per sitting each for its other two members, besides other clerical expenses”.

“The committee does not charge anything when its members meet for discussions and perform any kind of correspondence with schools. Our paid hearing will be counted the day we will start visiting schools for inspection or further ask them to present before the committee on some matter,” he said.

According to him, the entire fee of the committee was to be shared equally among all private schools. If a rough estimate of the committee’s fee for the entire probe was to be calculated, each school would end up paying not more than Rs 45,000-Rs 50,000. Several schools are of view that they should not be asked to pay for the committee’s entitlement as either the government or the petitioner of the case should bear the overall cost of the committee concerned.

Meanwhile, the committee will visit more schools for inspection and look into their undue fee hike for academic sessions 2012-13 and 2013-14. The committee is facing problems in getting the complete finance and academic information from private schools.

The committee on August 2 sent reminders to 11 schools of the city to complete the information. So far, none of these schools had replied to the committee. Justice Mongia said in case these schools did not respond by August 17, the committee would place their status report before the High Court.

Panchkula, August 13
As many as 17 persons in the Gohana case were convicted by a local court for pelting stones and creating violence in Panchkula with regard to retaliation after the murder case of Rakesh Lara in 2007. Out of the 17 accused, two died during the course of hearing.

While all others have been convicted in Sections 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty); 148 (rioting); 149 and 186 (Obstructing public servant in discharge of public function) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Also, they have been acquitted in Sections 307 (attempt to murder) and 427 (mischief causing damage) of the IPC. The quantum of the punishment will be announced tomorrow.

The accused, all residents of Rajiv and Indira colony in Panchkula, had just reached the sector 16-17 chowk when the police stopped them following which the agitators’ pelted stones and torched a bus. Also, the then SDM and DSP were injured in the incident.

The accused have been identified as Sunny, Zile Singh, Sikander, Shravan, Satish, Kulwinder, Ramesh, Krishan, Vikram, Jaibir, Balwan, Kuldeep, Sandeep, Rajesh (Proclaimed offender) and deceased Rajesh and Raj Kumar.

It was on August 27, 2007 when Rakesh Lara was killed allegedly by three persons in Sonipat’s Gohana area to avenge the murder of Baljit Siwatch, a Jatt, which took place on August 27, 2005. Rakesh was, however, acquitted on November 26, 2006 in Baljit’s murder.

Over 50 Dalits houses were torched in Balmiki Colony on August 31, 2005. After Rakesh’s murder, who was involved in about eight criminal cases, around 200 people took to the streets on August 28, 2007. They presented a memorandum to the then Deputy Commissioner of Panchkula.

The mob pelted stones at the police personnel present there following which 17 persons were arrested and a case was registered.

Panchkula, August 13
The CBI court today summoned Haryana MLA Zile Ram Sharma, MLA Om Prakash Jain and his PA Rajinder in connection to the murder case of the sarpanch of Karnal on August 29. The notices were sent after the charge sheets were filed in the case following their alleged involvement in the murder.

Karam Singh, former sarpanch of Karnal, was found dead on June 7, 2011, a day after he had lodged a complaint against Jain and Sharma, for allegedly duping him to the tune of Rs 13 lakh with the promise of providing them government jobs.

In the last hearing of the case, the CBI had moved an application in the court stating that they wanted to conduct a polygraph test of the two.The CBI also raided the residences of former transport minister O P Jain and former chief parliamentary secretary Zile Ram Sharma at Panipat, Karnal, Chandigarh and Panchkula.

It was stated that initially, the Haryana police had tried to pass off the murder as a suicide case even though 58 injury marks were found on the body of the deceased.

A week after his death, the police recovered body of Chamel Singh, a key witness in the case, on June 15, under mysterious circumstances near Karnal police station.

It was after Karam's son Rajinder Singh moved to the Punjab and Haryana High Court that CBI was ordered to take over the case. — TNS

Mohali, August 13
The police recovered a body of a person with several cut marks on it along the Kharar-Ludhiana National Highway near Bhagomajra village (Gharuan), today morning.

The deceased has been identified as Rameshwar (45), a resident of Bhagomajra village.

According to the police, the body was lying in the bushes along the national highway.

“Looking at the cuts and other injury marks on the body, foul play could not be ruled out. It seemed that the victim would have been thrashed brutally, but it could also be an accident case,” a police official said.

The body has been sent to the Civil Hospital for post mortem. A case has been registered in this regard. — TNS

Chandigarh, August 13
Chlorinated water of swimming pools gives a kick to 16-year-old Tejinder Singh Bains who is emerging as a local star. Son of a city-based swimming coach, Tejinder wants to live in the pool forever.

It is the passion that earned him three gold medals at the recently concluded state swimming championship organised by the UT Sports Department. Tejinder won the top honours in the 50-mt butterfly, 50-mt freestyle, and 100-mt freestyle events.

The emerging star has also represented the City Beautiful in various national-level competitions.

“The recently concluded state-level competition went good. I participated in three events and claimed gold medals in all of these. Such local-level competitions are really helpful for swimmers like us. Hopefully, in upcoming days, I will face some more competition to hone my skills,” said Tejinder.

When asked about his participation at national-level competitions, he said, “I have participated in two national school games and three open nationals. It gave me a lot of experience. All that the local swimmers need is a perfect place to practise and a few good national-level tournaments to participate in every year. Otherwise the talent will go wasted,” said Tejinder.

Talking about his future plans, he said, “I want to play for my nation and win medals. I can achieve this only through dedication and hard work.”

Chandigarh, August 13
Chitkara International School (CIS) emerged as the overall winner in an inter-school fencing (under-14) tournament hosted by Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 10. The CIS girls got 14 gold, one silver and one bronze medal.

In team events, Kashish, Ashiana, Manroop and Prabhjot bagged gold in epee. Akashdeep, Shubhjot, Manroop and Sakshi claimed gold in sabre and Kashish, Sakshi, Prabhjot and Akashdeep churned gold in foil.

Individual events: Kashish got gold in foil and bronze in epee, while Akashdeep (gold) and Shubhjot (silver) shined in sabre.

Chandigarh, August 13
Surinder Mahajan, a badminton coach posted at Panjab University, has been nominated as the coach of the Indian contingent participating in the Youth Asian Games to be held at Nanzing, China, from August 17 to 21.

In his earlier assignments, Mahajan has accompanied the Indian team in various international tournaments. These include Asian Games, Commonwealth Games and World Championships.

It is worth noting that Surinder Mahajan was accompanying the Indian contingent to Youth Commonwealth Games held at Isle of Man (England) last year, when the rising badminton star PV Sindhu won the gold medal in singles category.