Yamunanagar, June 30
Unable to accept rejection, jilted lover, Amardeep, set a young girl on fire. He confessed to his crime today and said he resorted to this extreme step after the girl rejected his proposal. He narrated the horrific tale during the police interrogation, post-which he along with his accomplice, Gulaba, were remanded to two-day police custody, which ended today. Thereafter, a Bilaspur court today sent the duo to judicial custody.

Seventeen-year-old Tanuja was allegedly set afire by a group of youths after her family objected to Amardeep and his friends playing loud music at Milak Khas village, here on Friday night.

The girl suffered more than 80% burns and has been undergoing treatment at PGI, Chandigarh. The police have so far arrested, seven of the eleven accused.

A police source said Amardeep, 22, was in love with the victim and had been following her for the last several months. The girl passed her Class XII exams this year.

Besides following the girl, the accused also used to park his vehicle in front of her house and played music on a high volume to attract her attention. He regularly used to come round her house with his friends to talk to the victim, said sources.

The youth told the police that he loved the victim, but she did not reciprocate his feelings, therefore, he decided to take matters in his own hand and set her on fire. Investigating officer, Randhir Singh, said, “Amardeep carried a can filled with kerosene from his house on Friday night. He poured the kerosene on the girl and his friend Gulaba threw a burning match stick at the victim.”

He added that the youth had confessed to his crime and also the kerosene can used in the incident was recovered.

On Friday night when a group of 11 youths attacked the girl’s house, nine youths were standing outside the house while two youths: Amardeep and Gulaba, entered her house from the terrace, to commit the crime.

Faridabad, June 30
A Power Department’s decision not to revise fuel surcharge in the electricity bills has come as a relief for the consumers across the state. The move is being seen to appease the electorate in run-up to the Assembly elections.

Fuel surcharge is revised every three months, but the revision has been held back for the past six months, department officials say.

The Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN), in its circular issued recently, has intimated the officials that the fuel surcharge levied from the consumers at the rate of 34 paise per unit since December 2013 will remain in force till further orders. This rate of fuel surcharge was notified in October last year.

The circular stated that the instructions should be brought to the notice of all concerned for careful and meticulous compliance.

Ramneek Prabhakar, General Secretary of the Manufacturers’ Association, Faridabad, said when the power rates were already high and the industry was facing short supply, not revising surcharge was perhaps the only relief that could be expected at this time.

Ram Kumar, an office-bearer of the Senior Citizens’ Welfare Association, Sector 7, said the majority of the domestic consumers were unaware of minor increases in the form of surcharge. “Any decision to stall or reduce the power rates is welcome, as hefty power bills are already a cause for concern for the common man,” he said.

OP Miglani, a resident of Sector 7, said the department’s decision should be viewed in the context of the Assembly elections due later this year.

The Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam has nearly 28.33 lakh consumers in Faridabad, Palwal, Gurgaon, Mahendergarh, Rewari, Bhiwani, Hisar, Sirsa and Jind districts, while the number of connections in Faridabad and Palwal districts were 4.26 and 2.26 lakh, respectively.

Ambala, June 30
In a major breakthrough, the district Drug Authorities and the police department seized a cache of synthetic drugs and Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Kits from a house in Mahesh Nagar locality. These drugs and kits had been stored illegally.

According to the drug and food administration authorities, acting on a tip-off they carried out the raid on the house, which had been taken on rent by Jasbir Singh, a resident of Nanhera village, and was being used to store the synthetic drugs along with the MTP kits.

The authorities recovered 11 MTP kits. The accused Jasbir Singh was arrested on the spot. District Drug Control Officer Sunil Dahiya, said they had been keeping a watch on the movement of Jasbir Singh for the last few days, after they became suspicious of his activities considering that he was involved in drug trade. Dahiya said, “He used to procure the drugs from Delhi and was involved in supplying these to various parts of Punjab and Himachal Pradesh.”

He said that the possibility of his involvement with the Punjab drug racket could not be ruled out. Meanwhile, the police and the drug department are now working to break the nexus of drug traders. Dahiya said efforts were on to identify those who were supplying Jasbir the drugs and the MTP kits and those who were buying it from him.

Jasbir Singh is only a matriculate and was not authorised to get into medicine trading. The police said that a case under section 22 of the NDPS Act and Section 3, 4 and 5 of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act was registered against him.

Bhiwani, June 30
Four members of a family drowned as their car plunged into a canal near Kosi Kalan town near Agra in Uttar Pradesh yesterday. They were natives of Dadri town in the district.

The bodies were cremated in the town today.

The victims were returning after visiting Agra when their car lost balance, resulting in the mishap. Five persons were travelling in the car at the time of incident.

The victims have been identified as Hitender Rahi (45), his mother Premlata Devi (75), son Lavish (15) and daughter Doli (6). Rahi's wife Bimla Devi (42) is critical and admitted to a hospital in Agra.

Rahi and his wife were engineers and were living in Gurgaon for quite some time.

Rahi's father, Prem Prakash, received the information about the mishap today.

Rohtak, June 30
The CPI and the CPM will continue their alliance in the Haryana Assembly elections. This was formally declared after a joint meeting of both Left parties here on Saturday.

State secretary Inderjit Singh, Surender Malik and Naresh Kumar represented the CPM while the CPI was represented by Daryao Singh Kashyap, Satpal Beniwal and Satyender Giri.

The meeting appealed to all progressive parties, organisations and individuals to join hands with them and try to evolve as an alternative political platform for the ensuing Assembly elections.

Emphasising this, the Left parties expressed their keenness to cooperate with parties like AAP and the BSP.

Both parties have reiterated their resolve to carry on their fight against the aggressive onslaught against the livelihood issues of ordinary people by the Modi government, which, they said, had already been launched and was bound to intensify in the coming months.

The Left parties are already engaged in the task of identification of Assembly seats to be contested and would complete the exercise soon.

The meeting passed a set of resolutions such as demanding dropping of Nihal Chand Meghwal from the Union Ministry, condemning the recent communal flare-up in Tauru town of Mewat, seeking justice for the Dalit families from Bhagana village camping at Jantar Mantar, ending extortion in the form of heavy toll tax on National Highways, redressing of grievances of exploited computer teachers sitting on an indefinite fast at Panchkula and ensuring rollback of enhanced rail fares and freight.

New Delhi, June 30
Top Congress leaders from Haryana will meet in Chandigarh tomorrow to debate a strategy and issues ahead of the upcoming State Assembly elections. Top sources in the party told The Tribune today that Shakeel Ahmed, Congress general secretary in charge of Haryana, would be present along with Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, state Congress chief Ashok Tanwar, among others.

Ahmed said while Hooda rival Kumari Selja was out of India currently, another CM detractor, Choudhary Birender Singh, was reportedly set to skip tomorrow’s meeting. All Congress MLAs and other state leaders would attend the meeting. It assumes significance being the first major strategy meeting of the state unit called after the dissolution of all units of the Haryana Congress across district and block levels. Also the meeting is being called for the first time since Tanwar and the CM wrapped up their state-wise workers’ meetings on June 28.

A major item that may come up for discussion or announcement tomorrow could be – early invitation of applications from ticket-seekers. The Tribune has learnt that Congress secretary in charge of Haryana Asha Kumari has submitted to Ashok Tanwar a format of applications to be filled by ticket-seekers.

An announcement to call applications from ticket hopefuls may even be made at tomorrow’s meeting.

Discussion on reconstitution of the Haryana Congress would also begin tomorrow with top sources indicating that there was a possibility of the party announcing ad hoc office-bearers as there was hardly any time left before the Assembly elections in October.

Jhajjar, June 30
A panchayat of farmers has announced to fight a decisive battle against the Bhupinder Singh Hooda-led state government for its move to acquire around 1,500 acres of land to develop Haryana Urban Development Authorities (HUDA) sectors in Jhajjar city.

The panchayat presided over by Chand Roop unanimously decided to boycott the award declared for land acquired by the government. It has also constituted a steering committee to knock at the door of Punjab and High Court against the land acquisition move.

Earlier, the panchayat held at the community centre here last evening charged CM Hooda with rendering the farmers landless by acquiring their fertile land in the name of development, which was not fair to the poor farmers, who were already struggling to earn their livelihood.

“On one hand, Hooda claims to be the well wisher of farmers by making hollow assurances for their welfare but, on the other hand he is leaving no chance to ruin the farmers by taking anti-farmer steps. We have always supported Hooda in the elections but this time, we will have to boycott the Congress if he does not release our costly land from acquisition,” said the agitating farmers in the panchayat that lasted over two hours.

Faridabad, June 30
Members of the Consumer Grievances Redressal Forum (CGRF) of the Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam will hold nine meetings at headquarters of operation circles in July to address consumer grievances and receive new complaints.

A spokesman said the first meeting will be held at Jind on July 1 followed by Gurgaon (July 4), Vidyut Nagar Hisar (July 8), Faridabad (July 11), Bhiwani (July 15), Narnaul (July 18), Sirsa (July 22), Palwal (July 25) and Rewari (July 28).

The forum, he said, shall take all complaints of consumers connected with billing, voltage, metering issues, disconnection, reconnection of power supply, interruptions, failure of power supply, efficiency, safety, reliability and non-compliance of Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission orders. However, cases of theft and unauthorised use of electricity, offences and penalties as specified under sections 135 to 139 of the Electricity Act, accidents and inquiries, as under Section 161 of the Act, will not be considered by the forum. 

Chandigarh, June 30
The mother and sister of Manoj, of the infamous Manoj-Babli honour killing case, today called on Haryana DGP SN Vashisht to complain against the behaviour of two security personnel deployed at their house in Kaithal’s Karora village.

A complaint signed by Monoj’s sister, Seema, alleged that the two constables misbehaved with her and her mother, Chandrapati. They feared for the lives in the presence of the constables, they said and demanded action against them.

Seema demanded action against the DSP, who did not provide a PCR van to them when they were going to meet the Kaithal SSP on June 26 to complain against the constables.

Manoj and Babli, who entered into an inter-caste alliance, were murdered for “honour” on June 15, 2007, by relatives of Babli. On March 30, 2010, some of the accused were sentenced to life imprisonment, while others were sentenced to death. On the orders of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, Manoj’s family was provided security by the Haryana Police.

The counsel for Chandrapati, HC Arora, said he would move the Punjab and Haryana High Court for protecting their life and liberty and seek action against police personnel. — TNS

Chandigarh, June 30
Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has urged the local bodies, including panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) to effectively discharge their duties to make ‘swaraj’ a reality.

Hooda was interacting with LSM Salins, Chairman, Fourth State Finance Commission, Haryana, who presented the final report of the commission for the period 2011-12 to 2015-16.

Salins apprised Hooda that the commission had recommended a financial devolution of Rs 3,573.12 crore for local bodies for five years from 2011-12 to 2015-16. He said this amount included Rs 2,322.52 crore for panchayati raj Institutions and Rs 1,250.60 crore for urban local bodies . This devolution is over and above the funds already being transferred to these bodies through state budget and other transfers.

He said the resource base of local bodies was inadequate as compared to their vast responsibilities. 

Panchkula, June 30
Farmers of Kajiana village located on the Pinjore-Mallan road have demanded their land back from the government, as Haryana Tourism Corporation Limited (HTCL) failed to launch the project here even after 18 years.

HTCL had acquired 46 bigha and 5 biswa of land from nearly 35 farmers of this village in 1995-96 for setting up an integrated tourism resort and spa during the Chaudhary Bhajan Lal government.

A sum of Rs 23,28,585 was also paid as compensation, but in the last 18 years, HTCL could not prepare even a blueprint of the proposed project.

The farmers alleged that the government had forcibly acquired their land at throwaway prices. They were even allured by officials saying that the project would boost the economy of the area.

They have demanded their chunk of land back with an offer of paying the interest on the compensation and the cost of crops they used to yield.

Some of the villagers whose land was acquired included Ganpat Sharma (14 bigha), Jai Chand (10 bigha), Gian Chand (4 bigha), Kishori Lal, Nihal Chand, Rup Lal ( 2 bigha each), Babu Ram and Bidhi Chand and many others.

“We were shocked to see that former Chief Minister late Bhajan Lal, along with senior government officials, had been to the village for laying the foundation stone of the project. But it was a jolt for us when officials of the district administration told us that their land had been acquired for setting up of the resort,” claimed Ganpat Sharma.

Kishori Lal, another villager, informed that the government acquired his 2 bigha land but paid the compensation in installments after a long gap.

“We all have small landholdings and depend on rain for crops. The government acquired the land, which best suited for pulses, ” claimed Kishori Lal.

A visit to the site revealed that HTCL has installed three sign boards bearing the trespassers and the foundation stone laid by the then Haryana Chief Minister Bhajan Lal was missing from the site. The land acquired by HTCL has virtually turned into a grazing field.

Vijai Vardhan, Secretary (Tourism), Haryana, said the land was acquired by the government after paying suitable compensation to the owners. “How could they claim the land back after so many years,” he questioned.

Vardhan, however, claimed that the government has formed a committee of secretaries headed by Chief Secretary, to chalk out the modalities for setting up of a integrated tourism resort and spa at the site.

“The government has even hired a Mumbai-based consultant company to develop this site as a world class tourism resort with all ultra modern facilities. The project would be advertised in July end and the construction will start shortly,” he claimed.

Bhiwani, June 30
A murder accused was shot dead by a group of assailants near the police post in Kharak village of the district today. The deceased, identified as Sanjay, was attacked when he, accompanied by villagers, was going to the police post to surrender.

Sanjay was accused of beating up a youth, Bijender, of Bamla to death on June 28. He went into hiding after the murder. Following the intervention of villagers, Sanjay agreed to surrender.

Sources say Sanjay reached the police post in a tractor-trailer. While alighting from the vehicle, 8 to 10 armed assailants fired at him. He succumbed to injuries on the way to PGIMS, Rohtak.

Sources say Sanjay’s murder was an act of revenge killing. Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Amit Bhatia said the police had constituted three teams and started a hunt to arrest the assailants.

Karnal, June 30
A 60-year-old priest was found brutally murdered on Monday at Dera Baba Diwannath, on the outskirts of Jundla village, around 15 km from the district headquarter.

The Sadar Police said the incident came to light after a villager visited the dera early today morning. He found Shyamnath’s body lying in a pool of blood. The deceased had been hit twice in his asleep and his head was badly mutilated, the police said. A blood-smeared spade was found on the dera premises.

Sadar police station SHO Narinder Kumar said, “The victim’s head had been hit with a spade, resulting in his death at the spot. A case has been registered against unidentified person(s) under Section 302 of the IPC and efforts are on to nab the culprit.”

Satish Kumar of Jundla village said Shyamnath belonged to Panipat’s Khojkipur village and had been living at the dera as a priest for four years.

Forensic experts examined the spot and collected some evidence, including a bottle of wine. The body has been sent for a post-mortem to the Kalpana Chawla Government Medical College Hospital.

Hisar, June 30
A gang of five armed robbers looted Rs 5 lakh from an accountant of a trading firm at Parijat Chowk here today.

A coordinated effort from local residents and the police, however, turned the tables on the robbers as all five accused landed in the police net by evening. An amount of Rs 2.89 lakh was recovered from them.

The robbers struck at a tea merchant’s firm, Kishore Trading Company, about 9 am. Two of the accused went inside the office and asked the accountant, Keshu Ram, at gunpoint to hand over the cash.

As they rushed outside the office to board the car, in which their three accomplices were waiting, the employees raised the alarm. Sensing trouble, their accomplices fled with some of the looted cash, leaving the two behind. They tried to escape on foot, but were chased down and overpowered by local residents. A youth, Naresh Kumar, called the police.

The special IG staff led by Jeet Singh swung into action and arrested two robbers, identified as Ram Singh of Aligarh (Uttar Pradesh) and Ramesh Kumar of Najafgarh (Delhi).

During their questioning, the police information about their accomplices identified as Vikrant alias Vicky of Siwani, who is a former employee at the trading firm and a mastermind of the robbery; Raghu alias Chhotu, a hardened criminal from Delhi; and Raju of Madhubani in Bihar.

A Hisar police spokesperson said the police managed to track down Vicky, Raghu and Raju at a Bahadurgarh bus stand in Jhajjar district in the evening. He said Rs 2.89 lakh and two pistols were seized from them, while the car used in the crime would be recovered soon.

Hisar Superintendent of Police (SP) Vikash Dhankar said swift action by the police had resulted in the arrest of the accused within hours of the crime. “The criminals are being questioned so that we can understand the motive behine the robbery at Kishore Trading Company. I hope some more cases of loot will be solved after interrogating them,” he added.

Fatehabad, June 30
The BJP today slammed the Congress for corruption and said the common people had to struggle for issuance of yellow and pink ration cards even after 67 years of its rule.

BJP Scheduled Tribes Morcha convener for Haryana, Punjab and Delhi, Sonali Singh, and party state secretary Mahavir Parshad said the corruption, rising prices and poor law and order were the only achievements of the Congress.

The BJP leaders, who were addressing people at Badopal village in Fatehabad, alleged thousands of crores of black money belonging to Congress leaders was lying in Swiss banks. They said Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the only leader trying to ensure transparency in governance and making efforts to bring back the black money.

Sonali Singh, a strong aspirant for the BJP ticket from Fatehabad, said the winds of change that routed the Congress in the Lok Sabha elections would blow away the ruling party and other political parties in the Assembly polls.

She said people had been coming forward to join the BJP ahead of the Assembly polls. Several villagers, including women, joined the party at a function organised in the village government school.

Rakesh Sethi, a national executive member of the party’s Cooperative Cell, claimed over 200 families joined the party today. “After our victory in the parliamentary polls, the BJP has started making inroads in rural areas, where it did not have much presence so far,” he said. 

Rohtak, June 30
Recent statements issued by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and his MP son Deepender Hooda demanding a roll back in the suburban rail fares hike in Delhi-NCR on the Mumbai pattern have led to confusion.

The Railways Ministry has already modified the revision in the passenger fare in connection with monthly season tickets (MSTs) and second-class suburban fare in the country. During a media interaction in Gurgaon on Saturday, Hooda had demanded that the hike in suburban rail fares also be rolled back in Delhi-NCR.

Hooda’s son and Congress MP from Rohtak Deepender Hooda even threatened to stall Parliament if the rail fare hike was not rolled back in the NCR on the Mumbai pattern by July 6. Deepender pointed out that the Maharashtra BJP and Shivsena MPs had forced the government to roll back the hike in railway fares within an 80-km radius of state capital Mumbai while the Haryana BJP MPs had not even raised their voice in this regard. — TNS

Chandigarh, June 30
The Haryana Government has received a rap from the Punjab and Haryana High Court for not following the procedure in blacklisting a firm for an indefinite period.

“There appears to be a complete non-application of mind of the authorities concerned, who do not appear to have even read own circulars ”, a Division Bench has asserted while imposing costs of ~15,000.

Taking up the petition filed by OMR India Outsources Private Limited against Haryana and another respondent, the Bench of Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice Arun Palli asserted: “We consider it appropriate to impose costs of Rs 15,000 on the officer concerned for passing this blacklisting order to be personally paid and deposited with the High Court Mediation Centre….”

The High Court had asked him to circulate the essence of the judgement, along with its copy, to the departments concerned and state public corporations “so that unnecessary litigation does not arise which has been the position for quite a few months”.

Referring to the case in hand, the Bench concluded: “The present case is the nth one which has come up before us arising from the same blacklisting order for an indefinite period and the Additional Advocate-General has no option but to concede that the writ petition must be allowed and the impugned orders dated March 14 be set aside with liberty to the respondents to pass a fresh order in accordance with law….”

KAITHAL, JUNE 30
PWD and Industries Minister Randeep Singh Surjewala laid the foundation stone for a Jat dharamshala on Sirta road here today . He announced the allotment of a two-acre plot and a Rs 1 crore grant for construction of the dharamshala.

Shamsher Singh Surjewala, a veteran Congress leader and President of the All-India Kisan Khet Majdoor Congress, was honoured with a pugree by the Jat community on the occasion .

However, a section of the Jat community held a separate meeting in Arya Samaj Mandir here presided over by Miyan Singh Sarpanch opposed the construction of a Jat dharmashala at the site where Randeep Surjewala today laid the foundation stone. They said this place was very distant from Railway Station , bus stand , Anaj Mandi and the civil hospital .

The community leaders had suggested three sites for this purpose but the minister ignored their suggestions. It was decided to hold a meeting of the Jat community on July 27 to decide the next course of action. — OC

Chandigarh, June 30
As many as 228 panches, seven sarpanches and five members of panchayat samitis have been declared unopposed after the withdrawal of candidature, the date for which was fixed as June 26.

“The election programme to elect 233 panches, 25 sarpanches, five members of panchayat samitis and two members of the Zila Parishad was issued on June 12,”said State Election Commissioner Dharam Vir.

“The by-elections will take place in 14 districts on five seats of panches, 18 sarpanches and two members of the Zila Parishad. The polling will be held on July 6 from 8 am to 4 pm,” he added.

Dharam Vir said the counting of votes in respect of panches and sarpanches would be held on the same day. Whereas for members of Zila Parishad, the counting would take place on July 7 at the block and district headquarters, respectively. — TNS

Yamunanagar, June 30
A man has been booked for raping his two minor daughters for several months. In her complaint to the police, the 15-year-old alleged her father had been raping her and her 12-year-old sister for several months.

She said her mother had been hospitalised for a long time after she sustained burn injuries in an accident at their place. The incidents took place in the absence of their mother.

The girls narrated their ordeal to their mother on June 28 and she brought the girls to the police station to lodge the complaint. The Farakpur police said a case had been registered against the accused Billa on charges of raping his daughters. — OC

Rewari, June 30
Two employees of a private company here were killed in a road mishap on the Rewari-Pataudi Road near Kakoriya village of the district today.

The deceased have been identified as Surender (31) of Dulhera village and Jaswant (36) of Khandewla village in Mahendragarh district.

The incident took place today morning when Surender and Jaswant were going to their office on their motorcycles. As they reached near Kakodia village, a truck hit them and the duo died on the spot. The police on getting information rushed to the spot and sent the bodies to the Civil Hospital for a post-mortem examination. The police have registered a case of rash and negligent driving against the truck driver, who managed to flee after the mishap. — TNS