07012025-JTR-01.qxd 06-01-2025 22:44 Page 1 c m y b Jalandhar tribune BKU (DOABA) LEADERS JOIN SHAMBHU PROTEST DEVOTEES THRONG GURDWARAS TO CELEBRATE GURPURB THE BRUTALIST, EMILIA PEREZ WIN TOP FILM HONOURS Farmers, steadfast in their protest, receive a boost as senior leaders of BKU (Doaba) join stir. P2 Stalls at gurdwaras offering hot, elaichiflavoured milk and crispy jalebis added to the festive spirit. P2 The Golden Globe Awards celebrated the best in film and television, with several standout performances. P4 » » » FORECAST MAINLY CLEAR MAX 17°C | MIN 8°C YESTERDAY MAX 18°C | MIN 8°C SUNSET TUESDAY 5.40 PM SUNRISE WEDNESDAY 7:27 AM TUESDAY | 7 JANUARY 2025 | JALANDHAR INBRIEF MAN BOOKED FOR FIRING IN AIR Phagwara: The police have booked a villager on the charge of firing in the air. The accused has been identified as Satwant Singh, a resident of Dhandowal village.The accused and his associates fired in the air from licensed and illegal weapons during a marriage party in the house of Satwant Singh on December 30. A case under the BNS and Sections 25/27/54/59 of the Arms Act has been registered against the accused. OC MAN BOOKED FOR THRASHING WOMAN Phagwara: The Bilga police have booked a villager on the charge of outraging a woman's modesty. The accused had been identified as Satish Kumar, a resident of Begumpur village. Avtar Kaur of the same village complained to the police that she was returning home on December 25 evening when her neighbour started abusing her and when she questioned, the accused attacked and seriously injured her and threatened her with dire consequences. No arrest has been made and raids are being conducted to nab the absconding accused. OC SARPANCH FIRES SHOTS, HELD Hoshiarpur: The police have registered a case against the sarpanch of a village and arrested him for firing outside a house. Kuldeep Kaur, a resident of village Masit Palkot, told the police that she lived in her maternal village. Her father was in Canada. Since she was handicapped, her aunt was staying with her. She said one day Sarpanch Sarvjit Singh started roaming in his car around her house and started knocking at her gate. When the gate was not opened, the accused fired four shots outside her house. oc TWO ARRESTED WITH INTOXICANT Hoshiarpur: The police have recovered drugs from various places and arrested two accused. The police arrested Karandeep Singh of Chaudhariyan Mohalla, Garhdiwala, and recovered a large number of intoxicated pills from him. The police also arrested Jobanpreet Singh, alias Sunny, a resident of Garhdiwala, and recovered 30 gram of narcotic powder from him. oc COUPLE NABBED FOR ASSAULT Phagwara: The police have arrested a couple on the charges of assaulting a villager. The accused have been identified as William of Saidpur village and his wife Mandeep Kaur. OC WOMAN ARRESTED FOR ATTACK Phagwara: The Lohian police have arrested a woman on the charge of assaulting a woman. The accused has been identified as Rupinder Kaur of Kotha village. A case under the BNS was registered against the accused. OC Roadways buses parked at a depot due to three-day strike; and (right) harrassed passengers looking for transportation at the bus stand in Jalandhar on Monday. PHOTOS: SARABJIT SINGH Contract roadways staff go on three-day strike Seek regular job; passengers face trouble Tribune Reporters Singh said members would gherao the residence of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann tomorrow as their demands of regularisation of their jobs was being overlooked by the government. the Supreme Court’s decision on equal work and equal pay should be implemented, kilometre scheme buses should be stopped and Punbus/PRTC should add new buses. Jalandhar, Janaury 6 The movement of state-run buses remained stalled in Jalandhar as the Punjab Roadways Punbus/PRTC Contractual Workers Union, Punjab, on Monday started their three-day strike. Passengers remained harassed as they kept looking for private buses amid cold and foggy weather throughout the day. The worst-affected were the women who had to pay up for the ticket as they otherwise avail the free transport service in governmentrun buses. There are 102 buses under the Jalandhar depot, of which only a few were on the run as the number of contractual employees with the Punjab Roadways, PRTC or Punbus are far more higher than reg- Hoshiarpur: Roadways workers raised slogans against the government. Due to the strike, the passengers had to face hardships, while private transporter benefited. Addressing protesters, Union president Raminder Singh said the Chief MInister had formed a committee under the chairmanship of the Minister of Transport, including the managing directors of the departments and the representatives of their union and ordered to submit the report within one month. On the contrary, the minister and officials of the department ignored the demands of the union. He demanded that Punbus/PRTC employees should be regularised, the contract system should be abolished, Phagwara: Passengers in Hoshiarpur: The police of Chabbewal arrested a person while betting in the mandi. The police recovered cash worth Rs 2,610 and betting slips from him. The accused has been identified as Sarvjeet Singh, alias Sonu. oc ular employees. These buses plied on nearby routes towards Ludhiana, Chandigarh and Amritsar. Even the passengers travelling to other states were harassed as the private buses do not run inter-state and they had to switch buses to complete their journey. Those heading to Jammu, Ambala, Shimla, Rajasthan, Haridwar and Delhi said their journey was unusually longer today. Some passengers also lamented, “The private bus operators are charging us more than the set rates”, said a group of the youth heading to Sriganganagar for a training session. President of the Jalandhar unit of the union Bikramjit Theft bid at clinic turns fatal; doctor and thief dead Balachoria, Kaushal Our Correspondent KAPURTHALA, JANUARY 6 A theft attempt at a clinic turned fatal for doctor as well as a thief at Bhano Langa village near Sultanpur Lodhi late last night. The incident, captured on CCTV camera, revealed a dramatic sequence where the clinic owner, Dr. Gurcharan Singh (62), confronted two thieves. Dr Singh, who owned Charan Medical Hall and Clinic, had been upset due to repeated incidents of theft at his establishment. He had recently installed CCTV cameras after a similar incident on January 2. Late last night, he noticed two suspicious individuals attempting to break the clinic’s shutter on the CCTV feed. Acting swiftly, Dr Singh and his son rushed to the scene to apprehend the culprits. During the confrontation, a scuffle ensued. A shot was fired The police during investigation at the clinic of Dr Gurcharan Singh (inset), who died in Sultanpur Lodhi. from Dr Singh’s licensed double-barrel gun. Tragically, the bullet struck Dr Singh himself, leading to his death. One of the thieves attempted to flee but was overrun by an unidentified vehicle. He too died on the spot. The other thief, however, managed to escape but was later arrested by the police. SP (D) Sarabjit Rai added that the deceased thief had been identified as Krishan Kumar, a resident of Kandola Kalan village of Jalandhar. SSP Gaurav Toora confirmed that both bodies had been taken into custody and sent for the post-mortem examination. “We are investi- 15 days on, city awaits its mayor, deputy Aakanksha N Bhardwaj YOUTH HELD FOR BETTING PRTC employees hold a protest for their demands at the Roadways Depot in Jalandhar on Monday. PHOTO: SARABJIT SINGH Phagwara, Goraya, Phillaur, Nakodar and Nurmahal bore the brunt on the first day of the Punjab Roadways, PUNBUS and PRTC contractual workers’ three-day strike on Monday as scores of state roadways buses stopped plying since midnight. Private buses were running packed on various routes. The strike was total in several towns. We will continue the agitation until our demands for regularisation of jobs and better wages are met by the state government,” one of the agitators said. Commuters were seen complaining about the strike. “I have been waiting for a state-owned bus for more than an hour,” said Dr Sonia at the Phillaur bus stand. Tribune News Service Jalandhar, January 6 The city’s new mayor is yet to be announced though the results of the MC elections were declared on December 21. City residents have started asking this question. Several civic issues are already troubling people and they believe that with new MC House, something may change. Previous Mayor Jagdish Raja got relieved from his post in January 2023. Two years have passed and despite getting the majority in the MC House, AAP has failed to declare the name of the mayor, senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor and no announcement has been made yet. There was a hung House in Jalandhar, Amritsar and Ludhiana, but in Jalandhar, AAP was able to cross the magical figure. After the results were out, the winning councillors from the Congress and BJP joined AAP . “We voted and they cannot even decide the mayor? Just look at the condition of the city. There is garbage everywhere. It seems that the governments, leaders and the authorities deliberately ignore it. If they were actually con- c m y b cerned, the situation would have been better,” Rakesh Chawla, a city based industrialist, said. Ravneet Kaur, a banker, said she cut short her holiday and came here to vote on December 21. “The elections were happening after two years, and I thought it was my duty to vote. But, strangely, there has not been any announcement of the mayor,” she said. gating the case to determine the sequence of events,” he said. A case has been registered. The SSP talking to this cor, respondent, said the police team, headed by SP(D) Sarabjit Rai, had nabbed the thief, who had managed to escape. He was Krishna, a Bihari migrant. The village community is in shock over the incident as Dr Singh was well-known for his dedication to his clinic. They are also alleging that had the police paid any heed to their complaints of frequent thefts in the area, the doctor’s life would have been saved. The authorities are urging residents to remain vigilant and report any suspicious activity in the area. The tragic episode highlights the dangers faced by citizens attempting to protect their property, as well as the broader issue of security and law enforcement in rural areas. gang shooter held Tribune News Service JALANDHAR, January 6 The Jalandhar Rural Police claimed to have arrested the main shooter of the Balachoria and Kaushal gang extortion ring. The accused was found to be instrumental in a plot to target a crusher owner in HP and was being used by the gang to make extortion calls. The accused Manjot Singh, alias Mani, son of Kulwinder Singh and resident of Moranwali, Garhshankar, Hoshiarpur, was apprehended by a team led by Sub-Inspector Amandeep Verma, incharge of the Crime Branch, Jalandhar Rural. The arrest was made during a checking at Adda Noorpur naka near GT Road on January 4. During questioning, the accused disclosed the location of another illegal weapon, ASI killed in accident near Phagwara bypass Phagwara, January 6 ASI Inderjit Singh lost his life in a motorcycle accident near Bhullarai Colony on the Phagwara bypass late last night. A resident of Paddi Khalsa Virk village and in charge of the pilot unit of Phagwara police, the ASI was travelling on his motorcycle when he reportedly lost control and fell. He sustained severe injuries that proved fatal. Witnesses recalled hearing a loud noise before discovering the officer lying on the road, with his motorcycle stopped some distance ahead. The body has been sent to the civil hospital for a postmortem examination, and police investigation is on.— OC resulting in the recovery of a second 32-bore pistol from Una. Investigations revealed that Manjot Singh was a wanted criminal in an Arms Act case registered in Hoshiarpur and a key operative of the Ravi Balachoria gang. It was further revealed that the gang was using Manjot to make extortion calls to targets, including a prominent stone crusher owner in Himachal. He along with his accomplice Jaskaran Singh, alias Kari, had been conspiring to intimidate and extort money from victims on behalf of the gang. The accused had been previously booked at Garhshankar. The police have recovered two country-made 32-bore pistols and two cartridges. A fresh FIR under Sections 25, 54, and 59 of the Arms Act has been registered against the accused. ‘Peddler’ held with 1 kg ganja Phagwara, January 6 The police have arrested a drug peddler and seized 1 kg of ganja from his possession. SP Rupinder Kaur Bhatti said the accused was Parmod Kumar, a Bihari migrant residing in Kaulsar here. The arrest was made during a checking near Khotrra Road. A case has been registered against the accused. — OC