Held for duping SBI of Rs 22.85 lakh
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Dec 16 — The police has arrested a cheat who had fraudulently withdrawn Rs 22.85 lakh from the Industrial Area branch of the State Bank of India last year.

According to police sources, Krishan Murari was wanted in connection with the withdrawals. A nationwide search for him was on. He was brought to Chandigarh on the basis of production warrants issued by a city court from Bhopal, following his arrest by the CBI. He had withdrawn Rs 13.50 lakh adopting the same modus operandi there too.

Mr V.K. Bhatia, Chief Manager of the branch, had lodged a compliant that the accused had withdrawn the money on the basis of forged cheques in connivance with others. The sum was withdrawn by submitting three cheques for Rs 7.25 lakh, Rs 6.85 lakh and Rs 8.75 lakh.

The other accused — Teja Singh, Tarlochan Singh, Sunny Luthra and Damodar, a postman — have already been arrested and are facing trial.

Harassed for dowry
Mrs Joginder Kaur, a resident of Patti Naragpur, Amritsar, alleged that she was married to Ranjit Singh, a resident of the Polytechnic complex, Sector 26, last year and was being harassed for bringing inadequate dowry ever since. She was reportedly subjected to thrashing by her in-laws.

A case under Sections 406 and 498-A, IPC, has been registered at the East police station and further investigations are under way by the Crime Against Women Cell.

Succumbs to injuries
Satnam Singh, a pedestrian and resident of Mani Majra, succumbed to his injuries in hospital. He was hit and injured last evening by a vehicle near the traffic lights.

A case under Sections 279 and 304-A, IPC, has been registered at Mani Majra police station.

ASI arrested
Lovedeep Singh, an ASI of the Punjab police posted with the CID wing, was arrested late last night for manhandling Mr Sandeep Goyal, a Sector 20 resident. Sources said he along with Sukhdev Singh, a resident of Gurdaspur, and Gurjit Singh of Amritsar, was travelling by a car (PIM 292) when the vehicle hit the car (CHK 3254) of Mr Goyal near the Sector 29 Garhwal Bhavan.

The accused not only abused him but also beat him up.

A case under Sections 279, 323 and 506, IPC, has been registered at the Industrial Area police station.

Whisky seized
The police has arrested Sushil Kumar, a resident of Ram Darbar, on the charge of possessing 26 pouches of whisky.

A case under Sections 61, 1 and 14 of the Excise Act has been registered at the Industrial Area police station.

Heated exchanges at debate on art
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Dec 16 — With loose, hanging duppatas, painted with some contemporary and traditional forms, forming the backdrop of a slide show on the diasporic South Asian art followed by a discussion on the Indian art both here and abroad, the scene was one of a debate and deliberation between artists and art lovers. The slide show and lecture were presented this evening by a Canada-based artist, Shelly Bahl, who is currently exhibiting at Art Folio, Sector 9.

Shelly is a recipient of the Shastri Indo-Canadian Senior Arts Fellowship for an artist residency in India. In her lecture and slide show, the artist presented a show of her works as well as her contemporaries whom she is working with.

The various slides presenting Shelly's own sets of work was a showcase of a diverse range of her views on life, which did not seem to draw any line between abstraction, symbolism or surrealism but formed its very own idiom, which to the uninitiated Indian viewer often comes as a shock. The slides showed art installations that play with images, loose fabric, videos and are definitely influenced by both pop art and also the traditional Indian images, both decorative and common at the same time. "What I am interested in is what happens when a thing looses its authenticity, and sometimes when people see my works they think that these are prints but on going closer they realise that these are hand-painted works".

She then went on to show some more art installations which had some more overwhelming forms that included matrimonial texts embroidered on silk fabrics, CT-scans with poetic texts imprinted on them or play swings hanging by synthetic braids!

In a passionate discussion that followed after the slide show, Shelly noted that the act of the Third World artists getting together was also a political necessity more than anything else since, for a very long time, these artists were being neglected by the West. Meanwhile, a handful of artists present amongst the select gathering today noted that it was essential that artists in the country also got together to form a community of themselves.

A lot of heated arguments also took place on the issue of questioning the art and the artists of the West, but at the same time breaking the bondages of living in the past without attempting to experiment with the old existing forms.

The various artists and the audience also deliberated on whether or not the purpose of art was to sell or simply express an idea by putting up their creations for display.

The talk was presided over by Ms Surinder Paul Kaur, Chief Commissioner of Income Tax, North Western Region, UT. The exhibition of Shelly will be open till December 22.

Pardesi regales with ghazals
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Dec 16 — A melodious evening was in store today at the Thursday nite programme of Sangeet Natak Akademi at Punjab Kala Bhavan, Sector 16, when UK-based ghazal singer Deedar Singh Pardesi was invited to perform to a select gathering.

A Punjabi and Urdu ghazal singer and a folklore singer, Pardesi has spent most of his time in Kenya. As a singer for Radio Kenya, he became very popular.

The audience swayed to his music tonight and seemed enchanted by the range and versatility of his voice. After his retirement as a teacher, Pardesi is now devoting his time to the promotion of the culture of Punjab. The programme was presided over by Surjit Pattar, a Punjabi poet.

Facilities impress participants
By Our Sports Reporter

CHANDIGARH, Dec 16 — "The lighting system at the skating rink here, the venue of roller hockey, are excellent," said Ankur Goyal, a skater from Jammu and Kashmir.

Seema Khariyal, who has come as a technical official from Jammu and Kashmir, was happy at the playing facilities at KB DAV Centenary School, Sector 7, the venue for roller hockey events.

Sapan Arora from Indore in Madhya Pradesh said world-class tournaments could be organised here.

Ms Madhu Bahl, Principal of the school, said no charges had been taken from the Roller Skating Federation of India. The lighting charges would be free of cost, she added.

Hockey matches were continuing till late at night and it was a memorable experience to play under floodlights, said Ankur Goyal.

Jammu and Kashmir has sent more than 50 skaters and Madhya Pradesh has sent around 50 skaters.

The rink will have a music system installed soon. Changing rooms will be constructed in the basement.

Raghav in final
Raghav Baweja entered the final of the junior billiards section in the Haryana Billiards and Snooker Championship, being played at the YMCA, Sector 11. He will meet Manan Nagpal in the final. Amit Sharma beat Ajay Singla 61-10, 51-41, 56-18 and Rakesh Gupta defeated Sanjay Kaushal 48-16, 56-20, 45-35 in open snooker.

Football tourney
Gurkha Training Centre, Subathu, and Youngsters Club, Chandigarh, entered the semi-finals of the fifth Vijay Rana Memorial Football Tournament, which began today at HMT Sports Complex, Pinjore. Gurkha Training Centre beat Northern Railway Workshop, Jagadhari, 3-1, Gurkha, Dagshai, defeated Chandigarh Police 6-5 via tie-breaker, Youngsters Club beat Lions Club 1-0 and Punjab Police defeated Mehar Singh Football Club, Kurali, 2-1.