Riot victim to protest in front of PM’s office
Tribune News Service

Dera Bassi/Mohali, December 31
After loosing hope of getting justice even after 24 years, Harvinder Singh Kohli, another eyewitness of the 1984 riots, has decided to sit on one-day fast on January 1, 2009, with his family in front of the Prime Minister’s office in New Delhi.

Harvinder has seen his father Sohan Singh Kohli and brother-in-law Avtar Singh being killed by miscreants in front of his eyes. His mother Jaspal Kaur got seriously injured.

While talking to The Tribune, Kohli claimed that despite approaching the concerned authorities, he and his family were still waiting for justice. “I have continually approached the CBI to record my statement, but to no avail. Congress leader Sajjan Kumar instigated the mob that killed my family members,” he stated in a letter to the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh.

Karnail Singh Peer Mohammad, president of the All-India Sikh Students’ Federation, who has been taking up the case of Kohli, said he was again taking up the matter with the investigating agency.

No celebrations

Bassi Pathana, December 31
There will be no celebrations in the town on the eve of New Year due to the killings of innocent people during the terrorist attacks in Bombay, Delhi, Ahmedabad and Jaipur. 

Manoj Kumar Banda, General Secretary, the Hindu organisations, told in a press note that residents of the town had decided not to make any celebrations rather they would pray for the peace of the departed souls and for the well being of all citizens of the country. — OC

13-yr-old sustains burns
Tribune News Service

Kharar, December 31
A 13-year-old girl sustained burn injuries at her residence in the Balongi area today. The victim, Megha Misra, was looking for toys using an oil lamp. The incident took place at around 11:15 am, when she was alone at home. 

Suddenly, the oil in lamp spilled over floor and caught fire, when neighbours heard her screams and came for the rescue.

In yet another incident, a milkman died in an accident, here today. Sucha Singh, a resident of Chandiala village, was on his way back after distributing milk. When he reached near Lakhnar village, a truck hit him and he died on the spot. A case has been registered in this regard.

Unidentified bodies on rail tracks shoot up
Our Correspondent

Ambala, December 31
The number of unidentified bodies recovered on the railway tracks and its periphery in Haryana has increased during the last few years. SP, Railway Police, Haryana, Bharti Arora, informed here today that around 1750 bodies were recovered in 2008, out of which 1199 were identified. It was 1696 in 2007 while in 2006 as many as 1529 bodies were found.

She said the Railway police had beefed up the security arrangements in various trains, especially in super fast trains, following the Mumbai terror attacks.

She said the GRP had been providing security in 356 trains in the region. Bharti said 60 cases of snatching were registered during the past one year, out of which 33 had been worked out. Similarly, 88 cases of theft were registered out of which 46 were solved.

Referring the recovery of narcotics in the trains, she said around 19 kg of charas and 160 g of smack was recovered in 2008. 

Lesser number of criminal cases reported
Gurdeep Singh Mann
Tribune News Service

Fatehgarh Sahib, December 31
A lesser number of criminal cases were reported this year in various police stations of the district. Last year a total number of 1,539 cases were registered, however, the number reduced to 1,411 this year.

The police was credited with solving the robbery case wherein a nationalised bank was looted in Khamano and cash worth Rs 46 lakh was stolen. Five accused were arrested with arms and Rs 3.30 lakh was recovered from them.

Two blind murder cases were also solved, one each in Mandi Gobindgarh and Bassi Pathana. The police claimed to have confiscated drugs worth Rs 80 lakh in the entire year in the district.

Six gangs of robbers were busted during early months of the year and goods worth Rs 1.64 crore were recovered from them. 21 cars stolen were recovered from different parts of the district. These cars were recovered with the arrest of 13 car lifters, who were selling parts of the stolen vehicles in Delhi and Haryana.

Women cell branch of the Fatehgarh Sahib police had a hectic time setting 537 cases. 410 cases of matrimonial disputes were settled.

The district achieved the feat of getting all police stations computerised. Cops had a busy time by trying their hands on learning computer. During the recent mega lok adalat's held in the district 1,356 cases were settled which included 2,035 challans and other cases of civil nature.

Apart from usual activities, the cops can now look forward to have the police lines at Mahadian village. The department had bought 25 acres of land for the purpose and construction is expected to begin from the next year.

CRIME

7 snatching incidents in 24 hours
Ramanjit Singh Sidhu
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 31
Despite heavy deployment of the police across the city in the wake of New Year, snatchers continue to prowl in the city, as seven incidents of snatchings have been reported in the past 24 hours. The police, in its utter failure to nab the culprits is trying desperately to hush up the incidents to save its face, as three incidents of snatchings have been reported, here today.

Interestingly, the police personnel is deployed on special checking drives on the roads to tackle any untoward incident, but the police failed miserably to deter the snatchers.

As far as the preventive action is concerned, the station house officers first try to hush up the matter by coursing the victims not to report the matter, and if they register a case, they try their best to conceal it from media. This year, over 200 snatching incidents have been reported against 179 incidents, last year.

The SHO of the Sector 34 Police Station is evading media queries for the past two days following a couple of snatching incidents. A senior officer in the police headquarters remarks, “Snatching is the most dreaded word for the SHOs, who get a dressing down from their superiors for being unable to curb it. It is widely said the SHOs are afraid of a snatching, which reflects the law and order situation in their areas”.

Sudarshan Singh, a former assistant inspector-general of police, Punjab, told TNS that a snatcher riding on a scooter snatched a purse of his 74-year-old wife Gurkirat Kaur. She just had stepped out of her residence in Sector 40-B, when a scooterist pounced upon her and snatched her purse. She caught hold of it and was dragged to a distance. The miscreant managed to take away her purse containing an expensive mobile phone, Rs 1500 and some documents.

She escaped with minor injuries and a passer-by noted down incomplete number (CH-1832) of the scooter. He said the police was informed about the incident, they initially tried to coarse them not to report the matter, but promptly registered a case when he revealed his identity.

In another incident, Dachen Doshi Dordi, a student in Sector 42 Government College for Girls, reported to the police that an unidentified person riding on a silver Honda Activa, near the college, snatched her purse. The purse was containing Rs 800, ATM cards and other articles.

About the third incident, though the DSP (South) Jaswant Singh Khaira admitted that the police received such an information, but the victim refused to lodge any written complaint in this regard. Despite efforts, the SHO could not be contacted. 

Mobike stolen at Sector 17
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 31
Jagdip Singh, a resident of Moga, filed a complaint with the police alleging that his Passion motorcycle, no. PB-29-E-1536, was stolen from Sector 17 on December 29.

A case has been registered at Sector 17 police station.

Stolen

Rajan Sharma, a resident of Sector 19, filed a complaint with the police alleging that his cash of Rs 2,500 and cash box containing Rs 1,500 were stolen from his shop at Manimajra in the intervening night of December 29-30.

A case has been registered at Manimajra police station.

Injured

A cyclist, Joginder Singh of Daria, lodged an FIR alleging that a motorcycle, no. PB-23-E-6453, driven by Pardeep Kumar of Baltana, hit him near Raipur Kalan, yesterday.

He was injured and admitted in GMCH, Sector 32. A case has been registered at Manimajra police station.

The accused has been arrested and bailed out later on.

Snatched

The local police registered a case on the complaint filed by Reepa of Sector 35 alleging that an unidentified motorcyclist snatched her purse containing cash Rs 100 and mobile phone from Sector 33 yesterday.

A case has been registered at Sector 34 police station.

Yearender|Crime
Vehicle thefts, property-related crime increased in 2008
Rajmeet Singh
Tribune News Service

Mohali, December 31
With the district emerging as the new centre of infrastructural growth, the influx of population is changing the profile of the crime. Crime related to property, ranging from white-collar offences to cheating and burglaries, registered an increase in 2008 as compared to the previous year.

Heinous crimes related to property disputes were also registered in 2008, the latest being the murder of a 19-year-old youth in Sekhan Majra village of Sohana. Several cases relating to disputes or encroachments on prime shamlat lands resulted in law and order problem. Most of the offences did find mention under the heinous crime.

There was also an increase in cases of vehicle thefts, burglaries during the day-time and after the sunset.

Under various offences of property-related crime, property worth Rs 4.14 crore was stolen in 263 cases as compared 256 cases registered in 2007. Citing better recovery rate, the police claims to have recovered stolen property worth Rs 2.32 crore as compared to Rs 1.61 crore worth of property recovered in 256 cases of property-thefts registered last year.

An analysis of the comparative figures reveal that vehicles in 139 cases, worth Rs 3.49 crore, were stolen as compared to vehicles worth Rs 2.42 crore stolen in 2007. Though the recovery is more as compared to the last year, the detection rate remains less than 50 per cent.

Under the special drive to check liquor smuggling from Chandigarh, the district police recovered 1.62 lakh bottles of liquor as compared to 37,635 last year. The maximum recovery was of Indian-made foreign liquor (IMFL).

Towards the end of the later half of the year, the police stepped up its campaign against drug peddlers as it recovered 4 kg of cocaine, 2.76 kg of smack, 26 kg of charas and 6 kg of opium. Admitting that the district was becoming an important centre for drug peddlers, they said all the recoveries were much more as compared to 2007.

Against a target of 863 cases relating to motor vehicle claim cases, traffic related offence, matrimonial disputes, domestic violence, recovery suits, the police was able to dispose of 1,590 cases.

Thieves decamp with taps worth Rs 59,000
Our Correspondent

Mohali, December 31
Thieves decamped with taps worth Rs 59,000 from a house under construction in Phase XI.

Vidhya Bhushan, who is working with The Tribune, said his house was under construction in Phase XI. He had installed the taps worth Rs 59,000 in the building. The thieves entered the building after breaking a door and decamped with the taps. He had lodged a complaint with the police in this regard.

SPORTS

Bhullar fifth in PGTI Order of Merit
Our Golf Correspondent

Chandigarh, December 31
Twenty-year-old Gaganjeet Bhullar from Kapurthala, who earned full playing rights for the 2009 Asian Tour because of his 65th ranking, finished fifth in the Professional Golf Tour of India (PGTI) Order of Merit for 2007-08.

Bhullar, who concentrated on the Asian Tour, had 10 top-10 finishes on the PGTI in a season that offered a record prize-money of Rs 6.35 crore. Bhullar’s performance was the best from the region with Harendra P Gupta of Chandigarh finishing ninth in the ranking.

Mukesh Kumar emerged as the PGTI Order of Merit champion with total earnings of Rs 34,31,992. He posted four wins and seven other top 10s out of 19 starts in the 2007-08 season. His victories came at the IOC XtraPremium Masters, Tata Open, The Centurion Bank of Punjab Open and the Tamil Nadu Open Golf Championship.

Delhi's Shamim Khan, a double winner on the PGTI in 2007-08, finished second, with Rs 27,83,883, on the Order of Merit, while Mysore's Rahul Ganapathy, a three-time winner in 2007-08, finished third, with Rs 25,98,303.

Digvijay Singh had a highly consistent season with one win and five other top-10s as he ended the year in fourth place on the Order of Merit. Gaganjeet Bhullar was fifth. Ashok Kumar, with eight top-10s, the 2006-07 PGTI Order of Merit winner, did not register any win in the season gone by, but still managed to finish sixth on the Order of Merit.

The 2007-08 season also witnessed Jyoti Randhawa maintain his 100 per cent success record on the PGTI. He won three titles from three starts in the 2006-07 PGTI season and followed that up with two titles, the DLF Masters 2008 and BILT Open 2008, from two starts in the 2007-08 season.

The last season produced a number of first-time winners on the PGTI, including Mukesh Kumar, Rahul Ganapathy (The Global Green Bangalore Open, Solaris Chemtech Open, The AIS Golf Open 2008 Presented by PGTI), Shamim Khan (6th TATA Open, ONGC Masters), Mohammad Siddikur Rahman (PGTI Players Championship at Poona Golf Club, HUDA-GTPL-Unitech Haryana Open), Lam Chih Bing (BILT Open 2007), Arjun Singh (SRF All-India Professional Golf Matchplay Championship), Harendra Gupta (PGTI Players Championship at Chandigarh Golf Club), Rahil Gangjee (PGTI Players Championship at Royal Calcutta Golf Club), Digvijay Singh (PGTI Players Championship at Coimbatore Golf Club) and C Muniyappa (Toyota Altis Open Presented by Eagleton).

The players to watch out for in the coming season will be C Muniyappa, Anirban Lahiri, Chandigarh's Harendra Gupta and Mohammad Siddikur Rahman. These four professionals finished seventh, eighth, ninth and 12th, respectively, on the 2007-08 Order of Merit.

The past one year also saw PGTI sanction two European Tour events in India (Emaar-MGF Indian Masters and Johnnie Walker Classic) as well as an Asian Tour event (SAIL Open), thus raising the bar of Indian professional golf.

Cricket Tourney
DAV-8 sneak past DP Azad academy
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 31
Hosts DAV, Sector-8, thrashed DP Azad Cricket Academy by 8 wickets during the 1st CCA-GNPS Gold Cricket Cup, here today, on the school ground.

DP Azad Academy elected to bat first after winning the toss and could not get a fast start due to early fall of wickets. None of their batsmen, other than Karan Aggarwal (20) and Daksh Aggarwal (17), could even score two-digit number and the team got out on a meager total of 106/5 in 30 overs.

For DAV, Aditya was the pick of bowlers as he returned a rich haul of 3/9. He took the wickets when it was needed more for the team to make the difference.

Replying, DAV-8 got off to a flying start and with the likes of Vineet (47) and Aditya (33), they easily achieved the target in 21 overs at the loss of 2 wickets.

In another match played at GNPS, Sector 36, APJ School, Kharar, brushed aside a spirited challenge of Shree Shree Cricket Academy by 36 runs.

Batting first, APJ School mustered a big total of 220 for 5 in 30 overs. This was made possible with the scintillating knock of the duo, Sahil (93) and Mandeep (80). For Shree Shree Academy, Harshit pocketed 2/32.

In reply, Shree Shree Academy put a brave foot forward with Saurav (49) and Ranbir (65) giving good performance, however, it was not enough to achieve the target.

At the end of the match, the team could only muster 184/4 in stipulated 30 overs. For APJ, Sahil (2/21) was the successful bowler.

Ashbeer leads in junior golf tournament
Donald Banerjee

Chandigarh, December 31
Fifteen-year-old Ashbeer Saini from Kapurthala carded a one-under par 71 for the second consecutive day to take an overall lead of two strokes over favourite Rashid Khan of Delhi at the midway stage of the Lalit Suri All-India Junior Golf Championship on the par-72 greens of Royal Calcutta Golf Club in Kolkata today.

It was another great day for the category B player. His steady one under card took him to a two round score of two under par 142. Hot on his heels was the reigning star on the amateur circuit, Rashid Khan, who fired the best round of the day, a three under 69, to move to second place on the overall leader board.

Chikrangappa carded an even par round to find himself two strokes adrift of Rashid and third in the overall category. Another Bangalore boy, Trishul Chinappa, who was tied for the lead in category A, stumbled, and with a round of nine over 81, fell down the leader board. Chandigarh's Aman Guron fired a one over 73 to be six strokes behind Chikkarangappa at eight over 152 on the penultimate day. Honey Basoya, the favourite in category C (under-12), moved to the top in his age group with an improved showing in the second round. He returned a card of five over 77 to move one-shot clear of Akshath Vidyanth.

Delhi boy, Piyush Sangwan, topped in category D (under-10) with a round of one over 73. The diminutive boy has carved a name for himself in the junior circuit and is a clear favourite in his category. He has already established a lead of six strokes over the next best player in his age group.

Ashbeer put on another impressive display today, carding his second consecutive under par round. Ashbeer made the turn at one under and with a couple of birdies and bogeys on the back nine, he finished one under for the day.

Rashid, coming off the back of three consecutive wins on the National Amateur Tour, was easily the most dominant player in the field as he returned the best card of the day, six shots better than his effort in the first round.

He had an up and down front-nine, with two birdies and two bogeys but on the homeward nine he sank three birdies to finish with an impressive three under 68, just two shots adrift of the leader.

Scores:

Overall (category A and B): 142 Ashbeer Singh Saini (71-71); 144 Rashid Khan (75-69); 146 Chikkarangappa (74-72); 152 Aman Guron (79-73) and Khalin Joshi (77-75). Category A: 144 Rashid Khan (75-69); 146 Chikkarangappa (74-72); 152 Aman Guron (79-73) and Khalin Joshi (77-75); 154 Samrat Basu (78-76) and Samarth Dwivedi (77-77). Category B: 142 Ashbeer Singh Saini (71-71), 156 Rahul Ravi (79-77); 157 Harjot Singh (80-77); 159 Ankur Chadha (78-81); 160 SK Subir (81-79) and K Anirudh (79-81). Category C: 156 Honey Baisoya (79-77); 157 Akshath Vidyanth (76-81), 161 Tutul Ali (83-78); 164 Feroz Singh Garewal (81-83); 166 Manu Gandas (85-81) and Subhankar Sharma (84-82). Category D: 73 Piyush Sangwan, 79 Prakhar Asawa, 84 Deepak Sharma, 85 Ridhima Dilawari, 86 Shubham Narain.

Black Elephant win u-12 cricket title
Our Correspondent

Patiala, December 31
Black Elephant Cricket Club downed Kanpur Nursery by nine wickets to annex the title in the 8th Dhruv Pandove Memorial Cricket Tournament (u-12), which concluded at the Army Club ground here today.

Scores:

Kanpur Nursery XI: 119 all out (Kuldip Srivastav 30, Ashish Yadav 23, Shubham 17 not out, Tejpreet Singh four for 20, Param Nagpal two for 39).

Black Elephant XI: 120 for three (Anmol Preet Singh 69 not out, Harmik Singh 11, Simranjit Singh one for 13, Himalaya one for 28, Apporva one for 19).

Mudit of Kanpur Nursery, Anmol Preet Singh, Simranjit Singh, Ikjot Singh (all of Black Elephant Club) were declared the best bowler, best batsman, best wicket keeper and boy of the tournament, respectively.