22052022-LT-01.qxd 5/22/2022 12:57 AM Page 1 c m y b Ludhiana TRIBUNE WHEAT YIELD DROPS 25 PER CENT PAGE 2 IN DIST, HEAT WAVE CITED REASON PETE DAVIDSON TO EXIT SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE Intense heat wave damaged the produce immensely. A whopping 25 per cent less wheat yield has been recorded in district. Pete Davidson is reportedly set to leave Saturday Night Live (SNL) following its 47th season finale. FORECAST RAIN MAX 40°C | MIN 25°C | YESTERDAY MAX 40°C | MIN 26°C SUNSET SUNDAY 7:19 PM Probe signals child trafficking racket by arrested doctor: CP Several newborn children ‘sold’ to needy couples in Punjab Nikhil Bhardwaj Tribune News Service Woman, son held in banker’s murder case Tribune News Service Ludhiana, May 21 In a murder case of a 25year-old banker Ranjodh Singh in Khanna, the Khanna police yesterday nabbed a 42-year-old woman Pardeep Kaur of Salaudi village and her son Karanpreet Singh (22). One of her sons Jashanpreet Singh (24) is yet to be arrested. Jashanpreet Singh is serving in the Army. The woman along with her two sons had brutally thrashed Ranjodh on May 15 and inflicted multiple injuries with a sharp weapon at their house in Salaudi. The SHO, City-1 police station, Khanna, Inspector Binder Singh, said Ranjodh and Pardeep Kaur had been having illicit relationship for the past few months. Pardeep Kaur’s sons had been objecting to their relationship. On May 15, Ranjodh was called by Pardeep Kaur at her home for a meeting. When he reached there, he was badly beaten up by Pardeep Kaur and her sons. The brutally injured banker was then thrown in the fields of the village. After the police got to know about the seriously injured youth lying in the fields, he was taken to a hospital where doctors declared him brought dead. Initially a case of murder was registered against unknown persons. Later when probe started and call details of the deceased brought the role of Pardeep Kaur under scanner, the police rounded her up for questioning. She confessed to killing Ranjodh along with her sons. The SHO said raids are being conducted to nab Jashanpreet Singh. ADITI RAO HYDARI MAKES CANNES DEBUT IN SABYASACHI SAREE SUNDAY | 22 MAY 2022 | LUDHIANA Wife, paramour MC removes 12 encroachments arrested for man’s murder Faces opposition by vendors during drive in Shivpuri Chowk area Tribune News Service Ludhiana, May 21 The Samrala police solved the three-day-old blind murder case of Yadwinder Singh Deepa (35), an employee of the liquor contract company of former Congress MLA from Samrala Amrik Singh Dhillon. The police arrested the deceased’s wife Sandeep, her paramour Amandeep Singh of Raikot, two other aides, namely Gagndeep Singh and Laxman, also of Raikot. The police said Sandeep had met Amandeep at a religious place in Jalandhar and therefrom they started their illicit relationship. Recently, Sandeep had told Amandeep that her husband was torturing her. She asked Amandeep to eliminate her husband. On May 18 when Yadwinder was on the way to his house at Mutton village in Samrala on his motorcycle, Amandeep Singh and his aides cornered Yadwinder and killed him. — TNS Ludhiana, May 21 The MC’s Tehbazari Branch on Saturday conducted an anti-encroachment drive in the Shivpuri Chowk area. During the drive, some persons also opposed and raised questions over the MC’s action. Tehbazari branch head Tejinderpal Singh Panchhi said a team of the MC along with staff from the Daresi police station carried out the drive against the encroachments, including slums and other structures, as per the directions of the MC Commissioner. He said around 12 encroachments were removed by the civic body. Some poor persons used to sell products to generate income for meeting their daily needs from roadside stalls. A few vendors also argued over the drive. Despite repeated demands of the vendors’ unions, the MC workers remove a temporary encroachment along roadside near Shivpuri Chowk in Ludhiana on Saturday. TRIBUNE PHOTO MC has failed to set up vending zones for the street vendors in the city as per the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) The police take Dr Mohinder Kaur into custody after raid on an illegal sex determination centre at Rishi Nagar in Ludhiana on Wednesday. PHOTO: ASHWANI DHIMAN also conducted on the premises of Dr Malkiat, from where Rs 1.75 lakh and some other important documents pertaining to the sex determination were recovered. Sources said a newborn girl was being sold at Rs 3 lakh and boy at Rs 6 lakh. Parents were also getting handsome amount to sell their child. On Wednesday, a Health Department team along with the police had conducted a raid on the hospital and nabbed the doctor doing sex raised by the accused as the amount of recovered narcotics fall under commercial quantity. Divulging details, Additional Public Prosecutor SS Haider said a case against Avtar Singh was registered on March 9, 2018 at the Division No 7 police station. The prosecution examined six witnesses to prove its case. He was apprehended by the STF (Special Task Force), Ludhiana unit, headed by SubInspector Surinder Singh. The police party had laid a naka near Sector 32-A on Chandigarh Road. Avtar Singh was coming in a car. On seeing the naka, he tried to turn his car back but due to rush he could not escape. On suspicion, he was stopped. During determination test. A case under the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act and various sections of the IPC, including of criminal conspiracy and cheating, was registered against the doctor. search, 800 gram of heroine was recovered from the car. However, during the trial the accused pleaded innocence. The accused had pleaded that he was picked up from Panheri village at Sirsa by the STF and brought to Ludhiana for false implication in the NDPS Act case at the behest of his relative. But after appreciating the evidence on record, the court observed that after the alleged incident no representation was made to the higher police authorities, no CCTV footage was produced in the court and no call record of police officials was brought on record to show their presence in Sirsa, So, the accused failed to prove his stand. — OC One fresh case in dist Tribune News Service Ludhiana, May 21 One person tested positive for Covid, while no person died due to the disease in the district today. A total of 1,09,924 persons have tested positive for the virus since March 2020, while 2,280 persons from the district have succumbed to the disease till now. The recovery rate of Covid-19 patients was 97.91 per cent today. There were 15 active cases in the district and 13 patients were asked to isolate themselves at their homes by the Health Department. At present two Covid patients are admitted to hospitals in Ludhiana. Till date, a total of 35,67,273 samples for Covid test have been tak- A boy gets vaccinated against Covid in Ludhiana. COVID-19 FIGURES SAMPLES POSITIVE ACTIVE 35,67,273 1,09,924 15 6 DEATHS 2,280 For any information related to Covid Contact: 0161-2444193 & 4622276 en, of which 34,42,582 were found negative. Samples of 3,360 suspected patients were sent for testing today, the results of which are expected shortly. c m y b Act, 2014. The civic body had earlier conducted a survey of around 21,000 street vendors but the process of setting up vending zones was delayed. Security man supplies tobacco, drugs to jail inmates, booked Tribune News Service Sirsa resident gets 10-year jail for possessing 800-gm heroin Ludhiana, May 21 Additional Sessions Judge Shiv Mohan Garg has convicted Avtar Singh, resident of CMC road bypass, Sirsa, Haryana, on the charges of possessing 800 gm of heroin. He was sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for 10 years. A fine of Rs 1,50,000 was also imposed upon him. The court made it clear that in case the accused fails to pay the fine amount, he will further undergo sentence of one more year. Delivering the verdict, the court held that the prosecution has successfully proved the charges levelled against the accused beyond any reasonable shadow of doubt. The court also declined the plea of leniency PAGE 4 Aditi Rao Hydari opted for a Sabyasachi saree as she made her debut at the Cannes Film Festival 2022 on May 20. SUNRISE MONDAY 5:27 AM ILLEGAL SEX DETERMINATION CENTRE AT RISHI NAGAR Ludhiana, May 21 A major disclosure in the ongoing probe into the busting of an illegal sex determination centre at Rishi Nagar in Ludhiana has been made. Police Commissioner Dr Kaustubh Sharma confirmed that the police probe found the role of the arrested doctor in a child trafficking racket as well. “After the arrest of Dr Mohinder Kaur in the sex determination racket, the police have recovered some mobile phones and documents which signalled that a child trafficking racket was also being operated from the hospital. The accused could have sold newborn babies to the needy couples across Punjab. We are verifying each and every aspect now,” CP Sharma told The Tribune on Saturday. The CP said, “The police probe has definitely found the child trafficking activity and our team is on the job to corroborate all evidences.” The CP said after the arrest of Dr Mohinder, raid was PAGE 3 ACP, Civil Lines, Harish Behal addresses a press conference regarding the arrest of mobile phone thief in Ludhiana on Saturday. PHOTO: INDERJEET VERMA Thief held, 8 mobiles recovered Tribune News Service Ludhiana, May 21 The city police today nabbed a notorious thief and recovered eight cell phones from him. These mobiles were recently stolen by the thief from the city areas. The arrested thief has been identified as Ketan Kumar, alias Ketu, resident of CRPF Colony, Urban Estate, Dugri. The ACP Civil Lines, Har, ish Behal, and SHO, Police Division 8, Kanwaljit Singh conducted a press conference regarding the matter. Behal said the police had received a tip-off that Ketan Kumar is a notorious thief and he had recently stolen mobile phone of a doctor from the DMC Hospital. Accordingly the police party conducted a raid and nabbed Ketan Kumar. During the search of his belongings eight stolen mobile phones were recovered. The ACP said Ketan Kumar also has a criminal past as one case of theft was registered against him at Dugri police station in October last year. “We will seek police remand of the accused so that persons who bought stolen mobiles from him can also be identified and more recoveries of stolen mobile phones can be made,” added ACP Behal. Ludhiana, May 21 A case has been registered against a Punjab Ex-Servicemen Corporation (PESCO) employee deployed on security duty at Ludhiana Central Jail for allegedly supplying drugs and tobacco to jail inmates. Two jail inmates were also booked. The accused are PESCO employee Jasvir Singh and jail inmates Pandav Das and Raj Kumar. Assistant Jail Superintendent Anu Malik said yesterday during the routine checking inside the jail, six intoxicating tablets, chewable tobacco and Rs 200 were recovered from the two jail inmates. During the questioning of the inmates, they admitted that PESCO employee Jasvir had supplied tablets and tobacco to them. Accordingly a case under the NDPS Act and Sections 42 and 45 of the Prison Act was registered against the inmates and the jail employee yesterday.