08092024-ATR-01.qxd 9/7/2024 10:52 PM Page 1 c m y b Amritsar tribune APPROACH ROADS TO GOLDEN TEMPLE NEED REPAIR, RENOVATION Devotees & Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee are irked over deplorable state of roads leading to sacred Darbar Sahib. P2 » B-TOWN CELEBRITIES WELCOME LORD GANESHA IDOLS IN THEIR HOMES Ganesh Chaturthi festivities are in full swing in B-town. The festival has more significance for Maharashtrian communities.P4 FORECAST PARTLY CLOUDY PATRALEKHA SAYS SHE LETS HER FLAIR FOR ACTING TAKE OVER ON SETS Actress Patralekha claims that experience of enacting an air-hostess in Netflix’s series IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack was ‘intense’. P4 » » MAX 36°C | MIN 25°C YESTERDAY MAX 34°C | MIN 25°C SUNSET SUNDAY 6.45 PM SUNRISE MONDAY 6:10 AM SUNDAY | 8 SEPTEMBER 2024 | AMRITSAR Inter-state weapon smuggler arrested with five pistols Amritsar, September 7 Acting on a tip-off, the counter-intelligence cops have arrested an inter-state illegal weapon smuggler and recovered five pistols from his possession. The arrested suspect was identified as Gurmeet Singh, a resident of Manochahal Kalan village in Tarn Taran. According to the police, he was in contact with Madhya Pradesh-based weapon smugglers. He had recently collected a weapon consignment from Madhya Pradesh and was to deliver it to a party near the Golden Gate area here when he was arrested by the counter-intelligence cops. Confirming the arrest, investigating officer (IO) Inspector Inderdeep Singh said the suspect was produced in a court here today which sent him to two-day police remand for further probe to establish his backward and forward links. The initial probe revealed that the suspect used to supply weapons to criminal elements active in the border belt, the IO said. The police were also trying to find how many consignments the suspect had procured from the Madhya Pradesh-based illegal weapon suppliers so far, the IO added. “We are trying to find accomplices of the suspect in Madhya Pradesh who provided weapons to him,” the IO said. — TNS Financial trail helps Pathankot cops arrest child’s abductors from Goa Ravi Dhaliwal DEMANDED ~2 CRORE RANSOM Tribune News Service Pathankot, September 7 For the last few days, the police persistently followed the financial transactions of the two suspects, who were involved in the abduction of a prominent Pathankot-based businessman’s son last week, before cops finally zeroed in on them and arrested them from Goa yesterday. The case had acquired utmost significance for the police because it not only involved the son of a politically well-connected businessman, but also for the elaborate manner in which the abduction had been planned and executed. The incident had created a furore in the city. On August 30, Maahir Bhandari, son of Badal Bhandari, was abducted by two persons when he just reached his home from school. The abductors had demanded Rs 2 crore ransom from Bhandari family for releasing their son. The suspects had fled towards Nurpur in neighbouring Himachal Pradesh (HP) with the child. Sensing that cops were hot on their trail, the suspects decided to leave Maahir at a secluded spot from where the On August 30, Maahir Bhandari, son of Badal Bhandari, was abducted by two persons when he just reached his home from school. The abductors demanded Rs 2 crore ransom from Bhandari family for releasing their son. The suspects fled towards Nurpur in Himachal Pradesh with the child. ❝Theasuspectsincleverlycar created replica which used in the crime was similar to a car parked in Chamba. The model, make, colour and registration number of the car used by suspects bore exact similarities to the Chambabased car. It was an attempt to divert our attention. The two kidnappers in custody of the Pathankot police. police later recovered him. The Pathankot police and the HP police had worked in tandem to locate the whereabouts of the child. Sources say the police were under tremendous pressure to find Maahir. Once the police reunited the child with the family, their focus shifted on nabbing the suspects — Amit Rana, a suspended BSF con- stable, and Rishab, alias Sonu, a JCB operator. SSP Daljinder Singh Dhillon confirmed that a team comprising Inspector Mandeep Salgotra, head constable Vishal Lakhotra and two others were given the task to track the suspects. Dhillon said the suspects, in an attempt to pull the wool over investigators’eyes had An investigator ❞ purchased a car from Chandigarh for the purpose of committing the crime. “They cleverly created a replica in which the car used in the crime was similar to a car parked in Chamba (HP). The model, make, colour and registration number of the car used by the suspects bore exact similarities to the Chamba-based car. It was an attempt to divert our attention,” said an investigator. After committing the crime, the suspects reached Goa by road via Ahmedabad, Surat, Baroda and Mumbai. The police followed the financial trail to track down the suspects. Some of their accomplices in Chandigarh and HP would deposit money into their accounts which was withdrawn by the kidnappers using the Unified Payments Interface (UPI). “It allows users to transfer money directly from their bank accounts into any other bank account without needing bank details of the recipient,” said Dhillon. Both Inspector Salgotra and constable Lakhotra were stationed at the Delhi airport. “We asked them to camp there till the exact place where abductors were camping became clear to us. Finally, on the evening of September 6, after a lot of patience and persistence, our team tracked them to a place falling in the jurisdiction of Cuncolim police station in Goa. The suspects were travelling in a bus. Our men, who were following the suspects in a car, forced the bus to stop. It was with the help of the Goa police that we managed to nab the kidnappers,” the SSP said. Civic body pulls up its socks to achieve recovery target of property tax Charanjit Singh Teja Tribune News Service Amritsar, September 7 Though the state government has asked the municipal corporation (MC) to increase the property tax collection by 10 per cent, the civic body is witnessing a slow recovery of tax dues during the current fiscal. During the last five months, the MC collected Rs 8.26 crore in property tax. September is the last month to pay tax with 10 per cent rebate. Officials are expecting good tax recov- ery till September 30. MC Commissioner Harpreet Singh has instructed property tax wing officials and Citizen Facilitation Centre (CFCs) staff to work on holidays till September 30 to recover tax dues. Officials would not take leave till month end, he said. The windows at the MC head office, Ranjit Avenue office and CFCs located in all zone offices would remain open on weekends and holidays to facilitate residents pay their property tax dues, he said. The municipal police would keep a check on the movement of cash from CFCs to the head office, he added. He further said, “Despite Saturday being a holiday, the property tax wing has collected Rs 12.60 lakh tax today. In all, Rs 8.26 crore tax has been collected so far during this fiscal. Residents are also visiting CFCs to deposit tax.” As per the state government instructions, it’s mandatory for all urban local bodies to show 10 per cent increase in property tax col- lection during 2024-25 fiscal corresponding to the last financial year in order to become eligible for 15 Finance Commission grants. Earlier, the Urban Local Bodies Department wrote to the MC to improve its performance and devise a proper strategy to achieve tax recovery targets. Last year, the MC had set a target to collect Rs 50 crore property tax, but could recover Rs 37 crore only. This year, the MC would have to collect at least Rs 42 Missing boy found MLA asks civic body officials to fix water in gurdwara Amritsar, September 7 A 10-year-old boy, who went missing yesterday, was recovered from a gurdwara here on Saturday. Later, the boy was reunited with his family. The police located the boy identified as Aryan within 12 hours after he went missing. Pankaj Kumar, a resident of the New Partap Nagar area, told the police that his son went to school in the morning, but did not return home. The family tried to find him, but failed to do so. In the evening, the boy’s family approached the police and filed a complaint in this connection. Gurinderbir Singh, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), said teams from Division B, Division A, Maqboolpura and Vallah police stations, besides CIA staff 1 and CIA staff 2 were immediately instructed to scan footage of the CCTV cameras installed near the boy’s house and his school. The ACP said after hours of hard work and investigations, the police found the boy from Gurdwara Shaheed Baba Deep Singh. Later, the boy was handed over to his family, the ACP added. —TNS pipes by Wednesday Amritsar, September 7 The MLA from Amritsar Central Assembly constituency, Dr Ajay Gupta, visited the Bhadrakali area here on Saturday and interacted with residents to learn about their problems. Residents complained of scarcity of potable water in the area. Residents told Gupta that they were getting contaminated water which was not fit for drinking or other purposes. Gupta instructed civic body officials present on the occasion to install a new tubewell bore in the area to overcome water shortage. He told officials to check leakage of water pipes to stop contamination of water. Gupta said he would visit the area again on coming Wednesday to check if the problem of water contamination had been resolved or not. Residents also apprised the MLA about poor sanitation in their area. The MLA asked MC Health Officer Dr Kiran Kumar to visit the Bhadrakali area and ensure that complaints regarding sanitation were resolved immediately. — TNS c m y b crore to get eligible for government grants. Civic body officials claimed that in July, property tax collection was less as mSeva portal was closed. Officials claimed that they would collect more than Rs 25 crore property tax by September 30 (mid-fiscal). Officials said they were going to initiate an aggressive awareness drive to make the public aware about rebate on payment of the property tax. SMS were also being sent to owners to pay their pending property tax, they said. Yesterday, the MC had collected Rs 32 lakh from 790 taxpayers, they added. The field staff of the property tax wing had initiated a sealing drive of properties whose owners failed to clear their pending dues. Recently, Municipal Corporation Secretary Sushant Bhatia issued several notices to defaulters and sealed six commercial units to press them pay their pending property tax. After court intervention, police register FIR in ~10L online fraud case Man duped on pretext of investment PK Jaiswar Tribune News Service Amritsar, September 7 Following the intervention of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, the cybercrime police station of the city police commissionerate finally registered an FIR in connection with an online fraud case in which a retired government employee was duped by swindlers of Rs 10 lakh on the pretext of investment. The complainant, identified as Maninder Singh, a resident of the New Amritsar area, had submitted a complaint on May 20 while a case was registered yesterday. The High Court also ordered the Police Commissioner (CP) to file a reply through a personal affidavit while explaining the delay in registering a case on or before — September 9 — the next date of hearing. In case of no reply, the Police Commissioner was asked to be personally present in the court, the order read. In his complaint to the Director General Punjab Police (DGP) with copies to Police Commissioner, Amritsar, and the Cyber Cell, Maninder stated that he retired in the year 2023 after which his retirement funds were released. The complainant said earlier, he invested in stock market through Zerodha. Later, he withdrew his investment from Zerodha after coming in contact with another investment group Bishnu Shah Stock. Maninder said after long discussion with the new group, he invested in Karma Capital. After opening a demat account with Karma Capital the complainant initially invested around Rs 14.50 lakh out of which he withdrew Rs 4.5 lakh on different occasions. The complainant came to know about fraud in March. He said his account was showing a balance of Rs 35 lakh (including investment and profit). He requested Karma Capital to let him withdraw funds from his account, but the firm demanded Rs 4.10 lakh as outstanding tax on income from investments. The complainant asked the firm to deduct tax from his demat account, but the latter did not respond. The complainant said when contacted Karma Capital through official page on the Internet, the firm informed him that some persons identified themselves as Bishnu, Dinesh and Gayatri, who had contacted him, were committing fraud with investors by impersonating as officials of Karma Capital. The information was already posted on their website, the firm told complainant. Maninder said in April when he tried to withdraw some amount due to personal need, the bank informed him that his demat account was closed. The police have registered an FIR under Section 318 of the BNS and Section 66 (D) of the Information Technology Act against the suspects. One held for illegal mining Tarn Taran, September 7 A patrol team of the Patti Sadar police arrested one person for violating the Mining Act on Friday. ASI Gurmeet Singh said the suspect was identified as Tarsem Singh, a resident of Kutiwala village. The police had laid a naka at Bhaowal in the Sabhra village area when the suspect was spotted driving a Gharuka (a make-shift vehicle) loaded with sand. The ASI said the suspect was signalled to stop at the naka. When questioned, the suspect failed to produce any slip or bill issued by a proper authority regarding sand, the ASI said. The suspect had illegally mined sand from the Sutlej river, the ASI said. A case was registered against the suspect, the ASI added. — OC