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Chandigarh, February 19
The Court of Additional District and Sessions Judge Preeti Sahni today acquitted nine persons in a murder case.

The police had arrested a total of 12 persons for the murder of one Alok Nath. The incident took place on May 14, 2012. Three of the accused are minor and facing trial in a juvenile court.

As per the prosecution, the complainant Parminder Singh, a friend of 
the deceased Alok Nath, stated that around 12 persons armed with baseball bats, rods, sticks and knife had attacked them at a park in Maloya. One of the accused had repeatedly stabbed Alok Nath, who later succumbed to his injuries.

However, the court today acquitted the accused as the prosecution failed to prove the charge. Those acquitted were Krishan, Gautam, Monti, Taranjit Singh, Sanjay, Arjun, Bharat, Gurmeet and Sonu, all residents of Maloya village, Chandigarh. 

Chandigarh, February 19
The Chandigarh Housing Board (CHB) has been penalised for failing to refund earnest money of Rs 70,000 to the complainant after draw of lots for one bedroom flat.

The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum has directed it to refund the amount and also pay Rs 7,000 as litigation cost to the complainant.

Complainant Chanderkanta, being a senior assistant in the Government Medical College and Hospital, Sector 32, applied for a one bedroom flat in response to the scheme launched by the Chandigarh Housing Board under the name “Self-Financing Housing Scheme 2008” for employees of the Chandigarh Administration.

She deposited a sum of Rs 70,000 as the earnest money. The complainant had to pay Rs 12,000. It has been contended that draw of lots against this scheme was held on November 4, 2010, and the complainant remained unsuccessful.

The complainant kept on waiting for the refund of the deposited amount as promised by the opposite party in the brochure, but the amount was not received back.

“In the instant case, we find that the officials of the opposite party were performing not a statutory but an administrative function for consideration and since they acted in an arbitrary and capricious manner causing mental agony to the consumer, compensation in the form of interest can be awarded to her for deficiency in service,” the forum said.

Mohali, February 19
The court proceedings in the local advocate Amarpreet Singh, alias Lucky, murder case could not move ahead as one of the nine accused again sent his medical certificate to the court here today.

Today Jaswinder Singh, son of SGPC leader Ranjit Singh Mangli, did not turn up to attend the court hearing claiming that he was suffering from diarrhoea.

The court of Mohali Additional District and Sessions Judge Manjot Kaur set February 26 as the next hearing date.

During the last hearing in the case, another accused Vishal Sherawat had sent his medical certificate to the court, requesting for exemption from his personal appearance from the hearing as he was not well.

“These are delaying tactics by the accused,” alleged Manjit Sethi, uncle of the victim.

Meanwhile, the court issued a notice to Jaswinder’s father to produce the Endeavour vehicle, which the police had recovered from the crime spot, on the next hearing date. The SUV has been given to Mangli on ‘supardari’.

Mangli was asked to produce the vehicle during today’s hearing but he also did not turn up.

The police have arrested the nine accused - Sunbir Singh, Jaswinder Singh, Sunil Bhanot, Rajat Sharma, Vishal, Dharminder Singh, Onkar Singh, Deepak Kaushal and Kevin Sushant - in the case.

Notably, all accused, who lived in the neighbourhood of the victim, had shot dead Lucky on February 27 last year over a trivial issue of parking of vehicle in front of the victim’s house at Phase 3A here. 

Chandigarh, February 19
The email account of a pharmaceutical company in the Industrial Area here has reportedly been hacked. Acting on the complaint of the company, the police have registered a case against unidentified persons under various sections of the IT Act.

The police had received the complaint in September last year and the case was registered today after obtaining legal opinion.

The complainant reported to the police that they had a pharmaceutical company in the name and style of M/s ACME Formulations Private Limited with head office in the Industrial Area, Phase I, here. Viral Shah is the managing director (MD) of the company.

One of their regular customers, Amit Trivedi, a pharma exporter of Mumbai, informed the MD that he had received an email showing the sender of the mail as Viral (director of ACME Formulation) with mail identity as viralshah@jcbl.com. When Amit replied to that email, the reply was sent to jcblinbx@gmail.com, which was not the company’s account. In fact, the company has put a forwarder of viralshah@jcbl.com to jcblinbox@gmail.com. The hacker tried to misguide the customer by omitting just one alphabet “O” for making the email ID look alike.

Amit told the company that the sender requested him to deposit the 50 per cent of the order value (Rs 6 lakh) by giving the details of banks. Similarly, other customers of the company from the UK and the US also received the similar fraudulent mail. However, they did not make the payment.

After checking, the company came to know that the miscreants had fabricated and forged the letterhead and asked the customers to make payment by giving their bank details. The email ID of the managing director was hacked and by fabricating and forging the letterhead of the company, the miscreants had fraudulently tried to get the amount transferred to their bank accounts.

Acting on the complaint of one of the employees of the pharmaceutical company, Nirmal Sharma, the police have registered a case of punishment for cheating by personation by using computer resource (66-D), cheating (420) and criminal conspiracy (120B) of the IPC at the Industrial Area police station.

Chandigarh, February 19
Two months after the railway recruitment scam was unearthed, the cyber crime cell of the UT police today arrested the mastermind, Ashok Kumar (30), a resident of Bazana village, Sonepat district of Haryana.

The accused, who is only a matriculate, was evading arrest ever since the scam was unearthed and the court had issued non-bailable warrants against him. He will be produced before the court tomorrow and his police remand will be sought.

Ashok Kumar had sent bulk messages to candidates appearing for the railway recruitment examination providing answer keys to the exam questions. He was arrested after the arrested candidates disclosed to the police that Ashok sent them answer keys and they had promised to pay him (Ashok) Rs 3 lakh once they cleared the exams. On December 9 last year, the UT police had busted a cheating racket during the Railway Recruitment Board Group D Examination.

The police had then arrested six candidates, who appeared in the exam at two different examination centres. Even before the exam started, they had the answer keys with them. Rajesh Kalia, DSP (Cyber crime) said they would interrogate Ashok to find out the involvement of some insider from the Railways, who had a possible tie up with Ashok.

At the time they were arrested, the candidates were seen preparing chits and jotting down notes from their mobile phones.

Six beneficiaries hailing from Haryana who were then arrested were identified as Narender, Kuldeep, Deepak Ahlawat, all residents of Jhajjar district, Devender and Gulab Singh, both residents of Rohtak district and Dalbir Singh, a resident of Sonepat district.

Chandigarh, February 19
In the two league matches of the ongoing Senior State Basketball Championship for Men and Women, the Panjab University Campus (PUC) Club defeated the Sri Guru Gobind Singh Club (SGGS) Club in the men’s section and the Guru Gobind Singh (GGS) Club overpowered the Dev Samaj BEd College Club in the women’s section, at the basketball courts of New Public School in Sector 18, here, today.

In the first match of the men’s category, cagers of the PUC Club tackled down the SGGS Club 92-68.

In the first half, both teams played a head- to-head game and locked it at 38-34. PUC’s cagers continue to take full advantage of their experience and overpowered the rivals by 24 points.

For PUC, Ravi collected 26 points whereas Sanjeev gathered 22 points to push the score ahead. For the SGGS Club, Puneet (28 points) and Jangsher (20 points) reduced the margin.

In the match of women’s section, the GGS Club defeated the Dev Samaj BEd College Club 46-20.

For the winning side, Kirti (12 points) and Arti (8 points) scored the major share while for the losing side Jyoti and Himani contributed 10 points each.

Chandigarh, February 19
The Asian Confederation of Billiard Sports and World Billiards Ltd in collaboration with the Punjab Billiards and Snooker Association (PBSA) will conduct the 15th Snooker (U-21) and the 13th Asian Billiards Championship. For the first time, a world billiards ranking tournament will be held in Asia. The championship will be held from April 4 to 10 at the UT Guest House in Sector 6, here.

"Internationally renowned cue sports players from over 15 countries will participate in the championship. The top two players from each of the around 15 Asian countries will represent their respective nations. In the Asian Grand-Prix Billiards event, world champions, including Peter Gilchrist , Mike Russel, Geet Sethi, Pankaj Advani, David Causier and other top billiards players from Europe, Australia and New Zealand, will join the top Asian players," said DS Bains, president, PBSA." — TNS

Chandigarh, February 19
The All-India Sports Meet of the Central Revenue Department, Ministry of Finance, kicked off today at the grounds of Panjab University.

Around 800 players of the Income Tax and Customs Department and Central Excise and Service Tax Department, are participating in the meet.

Track events of athletics were organised on the first day. The meet will also witness team games, including hockey, football, basketball, kabbadi, volleyball, chess, tennis, table tennis, badminton, carom, athletics, bodybuilding, cricket, swimming and billiards. Earlier, the meet was declared open by Dr Sudha Sharma, IRS, Chairperson, Central Board of Direct Taxes, New Delhi, during a cultural function.

Swatantra Kumar, Chief Commissioner, Income Tax (North West region), Chandigarh, and MC Singhal, Commissioner, Income Tax-I, Chandigarh, were among those others present during the opening ceremony.