B A T H I N D A    E D I T I O N

Druggist at Faridkot hospital held, sent to 10-day police remand
Faridkot, October 8
The Faridkot police today arrested the proprietor of five chemist shops at Guru Gobind Singh Medical College and Hospital here for allegedly selling cancer drugs at exorbitant rates and issuing fake bills to customers to help them siphon off funds under the Chief Minister’s Cancer Relief Fund.

Pilgrims clash with cops, 10 arrested
Abohar, October 8
Tension mounted in the neighbouring Hanumangarh town this evening when over 100 pilgrims from Abohar and Muktsar staged a dharna outside Aggarwal Dharamshala and jammed road traffic.

6,180 missing persons yet to be traced
Muktsar, October 8
It has been an unending wait for families of 6,180 persons who have been missing since 2002.

Roll back decision to hike rail fare: Harsimrat
Bathinda, October 8
Member of Parliament (MP) Harsimrat Kaur Badal has slammed the UPA government's decision to hike railway fares and demanded its immediate roll back saying it would badly hit the common man.

SGPC chief’s son cremated
Ludhiana, October 8
The last rites of Tejinder Singh Soni (38), son of SGPC president Avtar Singh Makkar, were performed at the Model Town Extension crematorium here on Tuesday. He had died after a prolonged illness at the PGI in Chandigarh on Monday.

Two pilgrims killed in road accident
Abohar, October 8
Two youths were killed in a road accident near Sangasar village this evening, the police said.

13-yr-old girl murdered
Sangrur, October 8
An unidentified person was booked for allegedly murdering a 13-year-old girl near Guara village, about 12 km from Malerkotla, on Monday.

Fleecing of cancer patients
Druggist at Faridkot hospital held, sent to 10-day police remand
Balwant Garg
Tribune News Service

Faridkot, October 8
The Faridkot police today arrested the proprietor of five chemist shops at Guru Gobind Singh Medical College and Hospital here for allegedly selling cancer drugs at exorbitant rates and issuing fake bills to customers to help them siphon off funds under the Chief Minister’s Cancer Relief Fund.

Punit Tayal, the proprietor of Universal Chemists, was booked for cheating and forgery on September 21 after an inquiry by the Faridkot police found him guilty.

Several cancer patients had complained that they were overcharged for cancer drugs at the chemist shops owned by Tayal. Since there was no other shop in the medical college, except for the ones owned by Tayal, customers had no other option but to buy cancer drugs from his shops only. Moreover, buying medicines from the shops situated on the premises of the hospital is mandatory to avail of relief under the state scheme.

The police started inquiry following a complaint by Jaspal Singh, a poor farmer from Ahahal village. His daughter, a cancer patient, is getting treatment at the medical college.

After registering a criminal case against Punit Tayal, the district police had constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe an array of allegations against the chemist shops in the medical college for selling drugs at exorbitant rates.

It is alleged that ever since inquiry began over two weeks ago, Tayal was evasive and did not join the police inquiry. On the other hand, many cancer patients and voluntary organisations in the area were pressurising the police to arrest and interrogate him for hoodwinking cancer patients.

After arresting Tayal, the Faridkot police produced him in the court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Faridkot, which sent him to police remand for 10 days.

On August 31, a team from the Health Department raided Universal Chemists and found several "physician's samples" stocked in the shop. These samples of the expensive drugs, which were not meant for sale, were being sold to gullible patients from rural areas on highly inflated prices. Besides, the team also found persons other than pharmacists selling medicines.

“While selling physician samples is illegal, giving the job of selling drugs to an unqualified person is also a violation of rules of the Health Department,” said Civil Surgeon Dr Baldev Singh Sahota.

Pilgrims clash with cops, 10 arrested
Our Correspondent

Abohar, October 8
Tension mounted in the neighbouring Hanumangarh town this evening when over 100 pilgrims from Abohar and Muktsar staged a dharna outside Aggarwal Dharamshala and jammed road traffic.

The police had to use force to disperse them. At least two pilgrims received injuries while 10 were arrested under Section 107/151 of the CrPC. However, they were released on bail later, sources said.

Witnesses said about 150 pilgrims, who were on their way to Salasar Dham, halted at Aggarwal Dharamshala. As one of them, Sonu Jogi, walked out, a biker rammed into him leaving both of them injured. The police and emergency ambulance service were contacted to shift the injured to a hospital but none reached the spot. Irated over the official apathy, pilgrims staged a dharna on the road.

The police rushed to the spot and warned them against doing so. Some of the pilgrims reportedly exchanged heated arguments with the police and one of them allegedly caught a policeman by his neck.

The police resorted to lathi charge. At least two pilgrims received injuries while 10 were taken into custody, reports said.

6,180 missing persons yet to be traced
Archit Watts/TNS

Muktsar, October 8
It has been an unending wait for families of 6,180 persons who have been missing since 2002.

All these missing persons belong to areas under 16 police districts and two police commissionerates.

Desperate kin of these untraced persons are hoping against hope to see their loved ones alive.

Information procured from the police under the RTI Act reveals that 12,150 persons went missing from 2002 to June 30 this year. As many as 5,970 of them were traced.

A majority of these missing persons were in the age group of 26-40.

In the area under the jurisdiction of the Jalandhar commissionerate, 466 persons of the total 818 missing since 2002 have yet to be traced.

In the area under the Amritsar commissionerate jurisdiction, 819 missing persons of the total 1,435 remain untraced.

Roll back decision to hike rail fare: Harsimrat
Tribune News Service

Bathinda, October 8
Member of Parliament (MP) Harsimrat Kaur Badal has slammed the UPA government's decision to hike railway fares and demanded its immediate roll back saying it would badly hit the common man.

Addressing people at a sangat darshan of several villages in Mansa, Harsimrat Kaur Badal said the move was "unacceptable and atrocious" and had exposed the "anti-people" and "anti-democratic" face of the UPA government.

"It is shocking as people are already bearing the brunt of sky-rocketing prices due to the anti-people policies of the UPA," Harsimrat said.

She said the SAD-BJP government had always given its support to people of all the classes. "The BPL card holders with blue cards will be now given wheat at Rs 1.5 per kg instead of Rs 4 and more new BPL cards will be issued soon," she said.

During the course of the programme, she visited Behniwal, Dhingar, Chehlanwala, Banawali, Daliewala, Mussa, Khokhar Khurd and Khokhar Kalan villagers and addressed people's grievances besides disbursing developmental grants worth lakhs of rupees to these villages.

Harsimrat Kaur Badal also distributed saplings under her Nanhi Chaan programme and appealed to people to stop female foeticide and plant more trees to make the environment clean.

The Bathinda MP was accompanied by Mansa Deputy Commissioner Amit Dhaka, Senior Superintendent of Police Narinder Bhargava, Sardulgarh halqa in charge Dilraj Singh Bhunder, youth Akali Dal district chief Gurpreet Singh Banawali and others.

SGPC chief’s son cremated
Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, October 8
The last rites of Tejinder Singh Soni (38), son of SGPC president Avtar Singh Makkar, were performed at the Model Town Extension crematorium here on Tuesday. He had died after a prolonged illness at the PGI in Chandigarh on Monday.

Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, Revenue Minister Bikram Singh Majithia, Rajya Sabha MP Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, Cabinet Minister Sharanjeet Singh Dhillon and MLAs Bibi Jagir Kaur, Balwinder Singh Bains, Simerjeet Singh Bains and Ranjeet Singh Dhillon were among those present on the occasion.

Two pilgrims killed in road accident
Our Correspondent

Abohar, October 8
Two youths were killed in a road accident near Sangasar village this evening, the police said.

The youths, along with 12 others, were riding motorcyles and were on their way to Salasar Dham 
from Abohar.

The deceased have been identified as Daya Shanker of the Ram Nagar locality here and Sukhbir of Nihalkhera village.

The duo was killed on the spot when the motorcycle they were riding on was hit by a car. Both were aged about 20-23 years old.

Their bodies have been shifted to the Civil Hospital at Ratangarh for post-mortem examination, which will be conducted tomorrow.

The deceased belonged to families of farm workers.

13-yr-old girl murdered

Sangrur, October 8
An unidentified person was booked for allegedly murdering a 13-year-old girl near Guara village, about 12 km from Malerkotla, on Monday.

Amargarh Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Gurmeet Singh said a cousin of the deceased had complained to the police that someone had tried to rape the victim before murdering her. The DSP said the post-mortem examination of the deceased did not confirm the attempt to rape charge. Gurmeet Singh said the girl, a Class VIII student, was attacked when she was returning to her house from the fields. — TNS