10052022-CT-01.qxd 5/10/2022 1:16 AM Page 1 c m y b Chandigarh TRIBUNE TUESDAY | 10 MAY 2022 | CHANDIGARH 'DON'T TAKE MONEY IN NAME OF PERSONAL ATTENTION' Top UT Sports Department officials instruct local coaches not to take money from sportspersons. FORECAST MAINLY CLEAR SKY PAGE 2 MAX 38°C | MIN 28°C | YESTERDAY MAX 37°C | MIN 28.6°C SUNSET TUESDAY 7:06 PM 148 PANCHKULA 167 MOHALI 117 401-500 301-400 201-300 101-200 51-100 0-50 SEVERE VERY POOR POOR MODERATE SATISFACTORY GOOD INBRIEF WATER SUPPLY TO BE HIT TOMORROW Chandigarh: Due to repair work, the drinking water supply from the waterworks-II, Sector 13, Mani Majra, will be stopped on Wednesday evening. As a result, the water supply to Modern Housing Complex, Gobindpura, parts of old abadi Mani Majra, Mariwala Town, Pipliwala Town, Aadarsh Nagar and Bank Colony will be affected. An official said there would be full water supply in the morning on Wednesday, but there would be no water supply in the evening. TNS CAR TURNS TURTLE NEAR CENTRA MALL Chandigarh: A speeding car, being reportedly driven in an inebriated condition, turned turtle after hitting another car near the Centra Mall on Sunday night. The occupants of both cars escaped unhurt. The police said a Honda Amaze car, being driven by Amit Gupta of Ambala, hit a Swift that had stopped at the traffic light. The Honda turned turtle . Amit was rescued by the youth driving the Swift. Amit had come to attend a party in the city. TNS 9 found infected in Mohali district MOHALI: Nine fresh Covid cases surfaced in the district during the past 24 hours, taking the total number of positive cases to 95,875, while five patients recovered from the virus. No new death due to the disease was reported from any part of the district on Monday. There are now 71 active cases. The death toll stands at 1,148. — TNS UT sees 9 fresh cases CHANDIGARH: The city witnessed nine new cases of Covid on Monday, taking the active caseload to 78. While there was no fresh fatality, nine patients recovered from the disease. The virus has claimed 1,165 lives in the city so far. — TNS 7 more contract virus in Panchkula PANCHKULA: Nine fresh Covid cases surfaced in the district in the past 24 hours, taking the total number of cases to 44,234. No new death due to the virus was reported. Of the 44,234 cases reported from the district so far, 43,792 patients have been cured. There are now 28 active cases. The death toll stands at 414. — TNS SUNRISE WEDNESDAY 5:32 AM TWITTER/THETRIBUNECHD FACEBOOK/CHANDIGARHTRIBUNE Tribune News Service Police personnel outside the Punjab Police Intelligence HQ in Sector 77, Mohali, on Monday. VICKY CHANDIGARH MACT directs the driver of a car and an insurance company to pay ~56,42,344 to a Panchkula resident. 3 killed, 25 hurt as buses collide P’KULA MOHALI POSITIVE 92,156 44,234 95,875 RECOVERED 90,913 43,792 94,656 NEW CASES 9 7 9 ACTIVE 78 28 71 CHANGE — 3 4 DEATHS 1,165 414 1,148 NEW 0 0 0 AIR QUALITY INDEX PAGE 3 MACT AWARDS ~56-LAKH RELIEF TO PANCHKULA MAN Leaders of local Youth Congress protest against the increase in the price of the LPG, carry empty cylinders on shoulders. TRICITY COVID REPORT CHD PAGE 3 YOUTH CONG HOLDS PROTEST AGAINST HIKE IN LPG PRICE Grenade attack on Pb Police Intelligence HQ No loss of life reported| CFSL team visits spot Tribune News Service Mohali, May 9 In a major security and intelligence failure, a grenade-like object was hurled at the third floor of the Punjab Police Intelligence Headquarters in Sector 77, Mohali, around 7.45 pm today. No loss of life was reported. Mohali SP (Headquarters) Ravinder Pal Singh said the grenade, possibly a rocketpropelled grenade (RPG), was fired from outside. He did not rule it out as a terrorist attack. A CFSL team visited the spot. Police personnel with body armour were seen outside the office. There was heavy police presence to guard the building after the attack. The police said no person was present in the room. The object broke the windowpane of the room The windowpane that was shattered by the grenade (right). and landed on a table. Officials did not elaborate on the intensity of the blast, neither did they comment on the lethality of the projectile. The Mohali administration, in a press note, played down the incident as a “minor explosion”. “Senior officers are on continued on page 2 Mohali, May 9 Three passengers were killed, while 25 others were injured when a rashly driven Haryana Roadways bus collided head-on with a private bus near Kurali city on a narrow overbridge around 12.30 am today. The deceased have been identified as Maranda resident Ranjana Arora (45) and Jalandhar residents Kulwant Singh (60) and Balkar Singh (68). Among the deceased, Ranjana was in the Haryana Roadways bus, that was going to Faridabad, while Kulwant Singh and Balkar Singh were returning home from a religious congregation in a bus carrying dera pilgrims. The police said the accident took place when the Haryana Roadways bus, coming from Baijnath, in a bid to overtake a car, hit the private bus coming from the other side on the overbridge. Eyewitnesses said after the collision, the Faridabad-bound bus broke the railing of the bridge and hung precariously from the overbridge for sometime before it was pulled back. The eyewitnesses said deceased Ranjana Arora and two others fell off the bus from a height of around 30 ft on the service road below. The police said the toll could have been much higher as a high tension wire was close by. Some of the injured have been discharged from a hospi- Two of the injured passengers in the accident. EYEWITNESS ACCOUNT ■ The police said the accident took The Haryana Roadways bus and the private bus (below) that collided head-on in Kurali on Sunday night. TRIBUNE PHOTOS tal in Kurali. A team of doctors present on the spot referred several severely injured to nearby hospitals in Mohali, Kharar and Chandigarh for treatment. Passengers complained that the roadways bus driver was warned repeatedly for driving rashly, but he did not pay heed, said the police. On a complaint of a bus passenger, a case has been registered against the bus driver, Mukesh Kumar. The bodies have been handed over to the kin of the deceased. The investigating officer, ASI Balwinder place when a Faridabad-bound Haryana Roadways bus, coming from Baijnath, in a bid to overtake a car, hit a private bus coming from the other side ■ Eyewitnesses said after the accident, the bus broke the railing of the bridge and hung precariously from the overbridge for sometime before it was pulled back Singh, said, “Deceased Ranjana was travelling with nine members of her family. One of the women in the family is critically injured and admitted to the PGI. The driver of the bus was arrested after he was discharged from the hospital.” Research, testing centre for industry on anvil in UT Dushyant Singh Pundir Tribune News Service Chandigarh, May 9 In order to improve the quality of industrial products, the UT Administration will soon set up a regional researchcum-testing centre in the city. The centre will not only certify the industrial products to match international standards, but also provide technical support to the industry based in Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and the City Beautiful, said UT Adviser Dharam Pal. He said it was a joint initiative being undertaken by Punjab Engineering College (PEC), Central Scientific Instruments Organisation (CSIO) and the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Ropar, to cater to the growing needs of the industry in the region. As the city lacked a testing facility of international standards for certifying industrial products, the centre would prove a boon for the industry in exporting their products. Coordinating research under a single umbrella, any issue faced by the industry due to techni- Will certify products to match international standards, provide technical knowhow to industry cal limitation would be taken care of by the centre and it would also provide research of international standards on the demand to the industry, he said, adding that the centre would explore research in new fields also. The Adviser said he had been working on the project for the past six months and even visited the International Centre for Automotive Technology (ICAT) at Manesar in Gurugram. Being a land-locked city, no new big industry could be set up in the city, he said. Keeping in mind the space constraint, a lead could be taken on the technological front where testing, certification and research could be carried out, he said. A technical expert said they had to work according to the needs of the industry and the challenges faced by it. To begin with, they would first have to hold interactions with the industry and take all stakeholders, including institutes, on board. The centre would have local connectivity, but global impact so that the city became the fountainhead in providing technical solutions as per the requirements of the industry, he added. Four accused sent to judicial custody 2 juveniles held for bid to run over Weapon, car used in crime recovered, cops fail to ascertain motive behind killing woman with auto MIDDUKHERA MURDER Gaurav Kanthwal Tribune News Service Mohali, May 9 A local court today sent four accused in the YAD leader Vicky Middukhera’s murder case to judicial custody. The police have recovered the weapons used in the crime. The vehicle, an i20 car, has been recovered from Yamunanagar. However, there are still several aspects of the case on which the police could not provide any The four accused in the Middukhera murder case being produced in the District Courts in Mohali on Monday. VICKY clarity. The identity of the fourth suspect accompanying the shooters is still not clear. More than eight months after the murder, police officials have not been able to ascer- tain the motive of the murder. Shagunpreet, manager of a singer, who has been named in the FIR, continues to elude the police. Sources said he fled to Australia on April 6, following which a look out circular (LOC) was issued against him. Shagunpreet provided accommodation to the killers and helped them in conducting a recce before the murder, said the police. The police said three .30bore pistols, along with six rounds, and one 9mm pistol continued on page 2 Chandigarh, May 9 Two juvenile brothers have been apprehended by the UT police for allegedly trying to run over a woman with an auto, who had objected to her minor daughter being teased by the suspects. The woman, a resident of Mauli Jagran, had complained to the police that one of the suspects, residing in her neighborhood, had teased her daughter while she was going for her tutions. The complainant’s daughter narrated continued on page 2 The ill-fated car that collided with a truck near Sector 20 in Panchkula on Monday. TRIBUNE PHOTO: RAVI KUMAR Student killed, three injured in hit-&-run Panchkula, May 9 In a hit-and-run case, a student was killed and three others injured after their car was hit by a rashly driven truck near the Sector 20 petrol pump on the Zirakpur-Shimla highway in the wee hours of today. The impact of the collision was such that all injured students were trapped in the car and were brought out of it by passersby. The police reached the spot. The injured were taken to a private hospital in Mohali by Naveen, who was following them in his car. One of the girl students, Geetika Bansal, a resident of New Basti Cinema Road, Patiala, succumbed to her injuries on the way. Her body was handed over to her family members. The injured students have been identified as Aditi, a resident of VIP Enclave, Zirakpur, Aditya Nagpal, a resident of Maya Garden, Zirakpur, and Sahil, a resident of Samshala City in Ludhiana district. They are undergoing treatment in the hospital. Nagpal, in his complaint to the police, said they were coming from the Kalka side to Zirakpur in a Maruti Baleno car being driven by him. He said when they reached near the Sector 20 petrol pump around 3.30 am, he tried to overtake the truck from the right side. However, the truck driver also turned his vehicle to the right and the car was dragged towards to railing, damaging it badly. The truck driver sped away from the spot. —TNS Human trafficking doesn’t amount to jeopardising country’s sovereignty, integrity: HC Saurabh Malik Tribune News Service Chandigarh, May 9 The Punjab and Haryana High Court has ruled that the trafficking of human beings does not amount to jeopardising the country’s sovereignty and integrity. Justice Sudhir Mittal also made it clear that neither can a passport be impounded, nor travel documents revoked, on the basis of mere suspicion. The assertion by Justice Mittal came on a petition filed by a Punjab Police constable, who had obtained ex-India leave. His passport was impounded without giving a “satisfactory reason” on May 20, 2017, when he was about to board a flight to London at the Amritsar international airport. In a written statement filed on behalf of the Union of India and the Ministry of External Affairs, it was stated that the Indian Embassy in France had received information from the French authorities that an anonymous source had informed them that the petitioner could be involved in smuggling illegal immigrants to Europe since 2003. The Central Bureau of Investigation addressed a communication to the Ministry of Home c m y b Says can’t revoke passport on basis of mere suspicion Affairs and the Ministry of External Affairs after the matter was brought to its notice. The Ministry of External Affairs consequently issued a communication, dated March 16, 2017, to the passport officer concerned to take appropriate action in accordance with the Passports Act and the Passport Manual. As such, the passport was impounded on account of suspicion. Referring to a provision in the Passport Act, Justice Mittal asserted that it entitled the passport authority to impound or revoke a passport or travel document, if deemed necessary, in the interests of the sovereignty and integrity of India, the country’s security, her friendly relations with any foreign country or in the interests of the general public. Justice Mittal asserted: “Assuming that the petitioner has trafficked human beings into Europe, it would not amount to jeopardising the sovereignty and integrity of India. The sovereignty and integrity of a country may be threatened in case of subversive and terrorist activities. Trafficking of human beings would not fall in either category and thus, the reason given in the communication, dated November 8, 2017, is erroneous and improper”. continued on page 2