11092023-LT-01.qxd 9/11/2023 12:55 AM Page 1 c m y b Ludhiana tribune PREVENT MOSQUITO BREEDING TO CONTAIN DENGUE SPREAD MOHSIN KHAN TO JOIN CAST OF MAY I COME IN MADAM? TAHIR RAJ CONDUCTS GUEST LECTURE FOR FTII STUDENTS Ensure proper sanitation, frequent fogging and community engagement, say city residents. P2 Actor Mohsin Khan’s inclusion in May I Come In Madam? is bound to be a treat for viewers. P3 Tahir Raj Bhasin recently got opportunity to conduct a guest lecture for students of foundation course on screen acting.P4 » » » FORECAST PARTLY CLOUDY MAX 34°C | MIN 25°C YESTERDAY MAX 34°C | MIN 24°C SUNSET MONDAY 6.38 PM SUNRISE TUESDAY 6:08 AM MONDAY | 11 SEPTEMBER 2023 | LUDHIANA Worker’s husband, accomplice set shopkeeper afire Tribune News Service Ludhiana, September 10 In a shocking incident, two masked youths threw petrol on a shopkeeper in Guru Teg Bahadur Market in the Model Town area and set him on fire. The fire also engulfed the clothing store and rendered serious burn injuries to the trader. The incident was captured on CCTV cameras of the shop. One of the suspects was the husband of a worker of the shop. The shopkeeper got burns on his face, chest and shoulders in the incident. The Model Town police reached the scene and initiated an investigation. The victim, Gurdeep Singh (55), was rushed to the Dayanand Medical College and Hospital in a critical condition. The shopkeeper said one of the suspects, Pratham Yadav, was the husband of Nisha Yadav, a sales worker at the shop. Nisha was seeking raise in her salary and he had assured that he would increase her salary later. For the past three days Nisha had not been coming to the shop. It seemed that her husband was angered as his wife’s salary was not increased. A case was registered against both of them. Two nabbed with 1.23-kg LIT delaying recarpeting of gold paste worth ~75 lakh damaged roads: Ex-councillor GOL MARKET ROADS IN MODEL TOWN Tribune News Service Gang brought gold worth ~30 cr from Dubai in past two months Nikhil Bhardwaj Tribune News Service Ludhiana, September 10 In a major breakthrough, the CIA wing of the Ludhiana police busted an international gold smuggling racket and arrested two persons. The police recovered 1.23 kg of gold paste worth Rs 75 lakh and an illegal .32 bore pistol along with five live cartridges from the suspects. The police have informed the Customs Department about the development and the gold paste would be handed over to them for further investigation. The Amritsar airport authorities are also being alerted. The suspects have been identified as Azad Singh (30), and Ashu Kumar (22), both residents of Amritsar. Ludhiana Commissioner of Police (CP) Mandeep Singh Sidhu, DCP (Crime) Harmeet Hundal, ACP (Crime) Gurpreet Singh and CIA in-charge Inspector Beant Juneja addressed a press conference regarding the matter. Sidhu said the CIA received a tip-off that Azad, Ashu, Parvinder Singh and Puneet, alias Guru, were involved in large- Cops address mediapersons in Ludhiana on Sunday. TRIBUNE PHOTO HARIDWAR MAN SMUGGLING GOLD FROM DUBAI CP Mandeep Singh Sidhu said the CIA received a tip-off that Azad, Ashu, Parvinder Singh and Puneet, alias Guru, were involved in large-scale gold smuggling from Dubai to India. Parvinder, a native of Haridwar, now residing in Dubai, had been smuggling gold from Dubai to India. scale gold smuggling from Dubai to India. Parvinder, a native of Haridwar, now residing in Dubai, had been smuggling gold from Dubai to India. Azad and Ashu had recently received a consignment of gold sent by Puneet from Dubai and they were on the way to deliver the same to their clients in Punjab. Accordingly, the police conducted a raid and nabbed the suspects near the Jalandhar bypass on Saturday. Initially, one kg of gold paste and a .32 bore pistol were seized from the duo. Later, the CIA team conducted a raid at the house of Azad in Amritsar from where 230 gm of gold paste was seized. Puneet is the brother-in-law (sister’s husband) of Azad. The CP said the police also seized a diary from the suspects in which several names of couriers, clients and other persons of the smuggling net- work were written. The police would verify all such details to dive deep into the international gold smuggling network. CIA Inspector Beant Juneja, who busted the international gold smuggling network, while revealing the modus operandi said the gang had been smuggling gold from Dubai to India and in the past two months, it smuggled gold worth around Rs 30 crore in the paste form. Event detectors at the airport could not detect gold paste. “Puneet used to send his courier man from Dubai along with the gold in paste form and he would send photograph of the courier person to Azad and Ashu along with the code. The duo then would go to the Amritsar airport to collect the same from the courier person by telling him the code. In lieu, they give Rs 20,000 or more for one delivery to the courier person. The gang had supplied around 50 consignments of gold from Dubai to India worth crores so far. About two days ago, they seized the consignment of 1.23-kg gold paste, sent by Puneet from Dubai,” he said. Ludhiana, September 10 Highlighting the deteriorating state of the main Gol Market roads in Model Town and unsanitary conditions and neglect of the park, former councillor Parvinder Lapran blamed the authorities concerned for turning a blind eye towards the issues. Lapran said the approval for resurfacing of market roads was granted quite a long time ago during the previous Congress govern- ment’s tenure but these had not been recarpeted. He alleged that the delay in the road work appears to be intentional. The park was not being maintained and a model of the Clock Tower had also not been installed in the park so far. Notably, the Municipal Corporation (MC) had handed over the road project to the Ludhiana Improvement Trust to recarpet the market roads a few years ago but big potholes are still posing a threat to commuters. An official concerned of the LIT, Vikram Kumar, said the contractor would start the road recarpeting work by Tuesday. He said the park development project work had already been completed and the MC was responsible for maintaining the park now. He said a plan to install a model of Clock Tower in the park was changed. Later, a flag mast was installed in it and soon a national flag would be hoisted there. Ex-councillor Parvinder Lapran shows potholes on the main market road in Model Town. TRIBUNE PHOTO Fatal attack: Victim’s family writes to DGP Fire breaks out at Gandhi Nagar yarn unit Tribune News Service Ludhiana, September 10 In the case of a fatal attack on a student of Class X in which the boy suffered serious head injuries and had been still bed-ridden at home, his family has written a letter to Punjab DGP Gaurav Yadav and sought his immediate intervention. The boy’s father, Mukand Singh, a resident of Seera village, said on July 31, his son Sukhjit Singh (17) was attacked on the head by armed BOY WAS ATTACKED OVER OLD ENMITY On July 31, Sukhjit Singh (17) was attacked on the head by armed assailants over old enmity. The police initially registered a case under minor sections but later Section 326 of the IPC was added to the case. assailants over old enmity. The police initially registered a case under minor sections but later section 326 of the IPC was added to the case. He said looking at the head injuries, medico-legal report and the manner of the attack, charges of attempt to murder under Section 307, IPC, should had been added to the FIR. The deceased’s father claimed that he had been shuttling between offices of police officials for justice. Within a month, he met the DCP ACP and SHO several , times but to no avail. “My son had to drop his studies as he could not go to school due to his serious head injuries. If justice is not delivered, section of attempt to murder not added to the case and all accused are not arrested, we, along with panchayat members of Seera village, will sit on a dharna outside the Meharban police station for an indefinite period,” the victim’s father said. SHO, Meharban police station, Inspector Davinder Singh said to add section of attempt to murder, the police had been taken opinion of doctors and justice would be delivered as per law. Tribune News Service Ludhiana, September 10 A fire broke out in a yarn unit in the Gandhi Nagar market here on Sunday morning. Fire fighters took around four hours to completely douse the flames. The fire engulfed the first and second floor of the factory while it did not spread to the ground floor. As per information, the fire started around 5 am. The factory was lying shut when the fire broke out. Fire personnel reached the spot from the Sundar Nagar fire station after getting information. Fire tenders took time to reach outside the factory due to narrow lanes and hanging wires in the area. A fireman, Rajinder, said a short-circuit was said to be the cause of the fire but exact reason would be known after investigation only. Losses due to the fire incident was stated to be in lakhs of rupees. The factory where the fire occurred in the Gandhi Nagar market in Ludhiana on Sunday morning. PHOTO: ASHWANI DHIMAN Indicted Civil Hospital staff attribute ‘serious lapse’ to heavy patient load PATIENT’S DEATH Nitin Jain Tribune News Service Ludhiana, September 10 Doctors and paramedical staff indicted in a case pertaining to the death of an unidentified patient at the Civil Hospital here on August 27 have attributed “serious lapse” on their part to heavy patient load. A probe, conducted by a high-level committee, headed by Deputy Commissioner Surabhi Malik as its chairperson and comprising Additional Deputy Commissioner Gautam Jain, SDM (East) Gursimran Singh Dhillon and Civil Surgeon Hatinder Kaur as members, had found serious lapses on the part of six hospital staffers, including two doctors, two staff nurses, a Class IV employee and an outsourced safai sewak. The inquiry, ordered by Chief Secretary Anurag Verma while taking cognisance of the matter on August 29, had also reported additional/ supervisory lapses on the part of five other doctors and lack of better management/ vigilance on the part of another doctor on duty at the hospi- PROBE HAD FOUND SERIOUS LAPSES ON PART OF 6 A probe, conducted by a high-level committee, headed by Deputy Commissioner Surabhi Malik as its chairperson and comprising Additional Deputy Commissioner Gautam Jain, SDM (East) Gursimran Singh Dhillon and Civil Surgeon Hatinder Kaur as members, had found serious lapses on the part of six hospital staffers, including two doctors, two staff nurses, a Class IV employee and an outsourced safai sewak. tal on the fateful day. In their statements recorded before the inquiry committee, a copy of which is with The Tribune, Dr Lovepreet Singh Gill, who was working as an emergency medical officer (EMO) on August 27 between 2 pm and 8 pm, said a total of 70 patients were received during his duty in the evening shift and he saw most of them. “When this patient arrived in an emergency around 6:35 pm, I was not aware of the patient as I was busy doing MLRs (medico legal reports). A total of 13 MLRs were done by me during my duty. At the same time, I was busy in calming relatives of MLR patients, who were making a lot of hue and cry in the Emergency Department,” he said. Dr Gill said due to this, his house surgeon Dr Dhananjay Yadav saw the patient and gave appropriate first aid orders for him. “During this time, he was busy managing around 10 other patients received in the emergency due to which he could not discuss the case with me,” he said. He said without any notes from him and Dr Dhananjay’s side, the patient was shifted without their knowledge to a ward of unidentified male patients and the police information regarding the unidentified patient was sent by the staff nurse on duty. But it was also not informed to him. “At the time of giving shift orders around 8 pm, the patient, along with his file, was not present in the emergency ward due to which I could not give roll over orders for him to the next EMO on duty,” he said. The house surgeon, Dr Dhananjay, deposed that he examined the patient and noted his vitals and injuries. “He was conscious and oriented to time, place and person,” he said while informing that the patient had injuries on his right lower leg and ankle and also on the nasal area. “I stabilised the patient by starting him on IV fluids to improve his blood pressure, which was recorded low. I also gave a pain killer injection order to relieve his pain and gave him PPI (proton pump c m y b inhibitor) that was injected with Rantac to prevent the patient’s stress ulcers,” he said. Dr Yadav said he also ordered the patient’s X-ray of lower limbs and CT scan of his head. “Before we can start the patient’s treatment for the head injury, we need a confirmation of injury on the CT scan as head injuries as a broad term contains a lot of suspected medical injuries, the treatment of which differs accordingly,” he said, stating that the patient was stabilised with IV fluids for 25 minutes after which he was to be shifted for CT scan. “During this time, I was busy in managing around 10 other patients and could not discuss the case with the EMO, who was also busy in doing MLRs,” he said, endorsing the EMO’s statement that without any notes for shifting patients from his side, the patient was shifted without his knowledge to the unidentified male ward. The staff nurse, Kuldeep Kaur, said the patient was received in the emergency ward around 6:35 pm when she was on duty and his entry was registered by her in the emergency register. “My duty was to record the patient’s entry, which was done by me,” she asserted. She claimed that she had asked male staff nurse Sunny Masih to arrange the patient’s treatment but due to overcrowding in the emergency ward, patients were fighting among themselves, following which she had asked Class IV employee Manoj Kumar to shift the patient to the male ward. “Due to heavy rush of patients in the emergency ward and many patients not getting beds following the arrival of several cases of assault, I did not get time to ask the doctor and instead, told the Class IV employee to shift the patient,” she admitted. She claimed that she had informed another staff nurse Nitika for the next duty but the latter came to the hospital only after she had left. The Class IV employee said the emergency ward was overcrowded when the patient was brought in a critical condition and attendants of several patients were fighting with them for attending their patients first. “Since there was no bed vacant in the male ward and some beds were shared by two patients, I was told to leave the patient on a stretcher,” he said, adding that after leaving the patient on the stretcher, he received a receipt from the staff concerned and returned to the emergency ward. Kumar claimed that he gave complete information of the situation at the male ward to on duty staff and the EMO as well, who were surrounded by patients at that time. “I have no idea what happened to the unidentified patient after that,” he said. Sunny Masih said the doctor on duty told them about the treatment to be given to the patient and as per instructions, he gave an injection and RL bottle to the patient. “The doctor asked me to apply splints on the arms and both legs of the patient, who was shifted to the male ward after giving the treatment as directed by the doctor on duty,” he deposed. Another staff nurse Amanpreet Kaur admitted that she left the duty at 7:40 pm despite the fact that her duty was till 8 pm. She claimed that she had made an entry of continued on page 2 Youth dies of drug overdose, 2 friends held Ludhiana, September 10 After a youth died of drug overdose in Chankoyian village yesterday, the Payal police registered a case against the deceased’s two friends on the charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder. The suspects, identified as Dilpreet Singh and Rana of Muksudran, Payal, were arrested by the police later on Saturday. Karnail Singh, the father of the deceased, Sukhvir Singh, said on September 8, his son went to pay obeisance at some religious place. When his son did not return home, he went to search for him but he could not find him. On the same night, two friends of his son brought him home and left the place. “My son’s health condition was not good and he told me that his friends had injected drugs which deteriorated his health. The next morning, on September 9, he died,” the complainant said. — TNS