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chandigarh | gurugram | jalandhar | bathinda | jammu | srinagar | vol.139 no.211 | 16 pages | ~4.50 | regd.no.chd/0006/2018-2020 established in 1881 | thursday, august1,2019
BJPtogosolo Massive operation in Punjab to snap drug supply chain
in J&K polls
406
‘35A decision to benefit state’
M Aamir Khan
Tribune News Service
Srinagar, July 31
Suspense over rumours of
Article 35A revocation contin-
ued as BJP national general
secretary Ram Madhav today
said the Centre’s decision on
the controversial Act would
benefit Jammu and Kashmir.
“Those who have the power
and right to take decision on
these issues will do so at an
appropriate time. But, the
party cannot decide. The
decision has to be taken by
the Prime Minister and the
Centre. I assure you whatev-
er decision they take will be
in the interest of the state,”
Madhav told reporters on the
sidelines of a BJP youth wing
function here.
He blamed the local parties
for resorting to rumour mon-
gering over Article 35A revoca-
tion to stay relevant. “Fear is
being created by local parties
for their benefit. They are
keeping themselves politically
relevant through irresponsible
statements. We have to free the
state from the clutches of two
parties (read National Confer-
ence and PDP),” he said.
Madhav specifically hit out
at former Chief Minister
Mehbooba Mufti for saying
that tinkering with Article
35A would be like touching
‘barood’ (explosives). “Elec-
tions are to be held and they
should talk about it... but she
is talking about barood...
IN BRIEF
Cabinet nod to set up ISRO
technical unit in Russia
New Delhi: The Union Cabinet
on Wednesday approved the
setting up of ISRO Technical
Liaison Unit (ITLU) at Moscow in
Russia, a statement said. The
unit will enable effective techni-
cal coordination for timely inter-
ventions on diversified matters
with Russia and other neigh-
bouring countries for realisa-
tion of the programmatic tar-
gets of Indian Space Research
Organisation (ISRO), it said. An
annual expenditure of about
~1.5 crore is anticipated to be
incurred at ITLU in Russia. PTI
Azam Khan’s university
raided, son detained
Lucknow: SP MLA from Swar
Tanda (Rampur) Abdullah Azam
Khan, son of Rampur MP Azam
Khan, was detained for report-
edly causing obstruction during
search operation of Moham-
mad Ali Jauhar University. He
was later released on a person-
al bond. Rampur SP Ajay Pal
said when the police team
entered the campus to probe
the charges of stolen books
from Rampur’s Raza Library
and Madarsa Aliya being found
in the university, Abdullah
reportedly created hurdles in
government work. BACK PAGE
Sri Lanka launches visa-free
arrival scheme for tourists
Colombo: Sri Lanka on Wednes-
day announced to give free visa
on arrival to visitors from India
and 47 other nations in its efforts
to revive the country’s tourism
sector, which witnessed a slump
following the Easter Sunday
bombings. Tourism Minister
John Amaratunga said the
scheme to waive visa fee for
travellers from 48 nations will
start from Thursday. In April, Lan-
ka suspended its plans to grant
visas on arrival to citizens of 39
countries after the devastating
Easter suicide bombings. PTI
GOVT KEPT US IN DARK ON TRIPLE
TALAQ BILL, SAYS AZAD NATION
❝ Chandigarh, July 31
Ram Madhav, BJP gen secy
CENTRE EXTENDS 10%
EWS QUOTA TO STATE
■ The Union Cabinet on
Wednesday approved J&K
Reservation (2nd Amend-
ment) Bill, 2019, to extend
10% reservation for eco-
nomically weaker sections
in General Category
■ Union Minister Prakash
Javadekar said the quota
would be in addition to the
existing reservation
MOTORMOUTHS WARNED
Jammu: Amid panic in Valley
over fate of Article 35A, the BJP
high command has warned its
J&K leaders against speaking
on contentious issues. The cen-
tral leadership has rather sug-
gested state leaders to do
ground work for Assembly poll.
there is an attempt to create
an atmosphere of fear to save
the slipping political base of
regional parties. We are not
going to be scared by such
statements,” he said. Dis-
pelling the notion that BJP
was against holding Assem-
bly polls in the state, he said
continued on page 11
khanna j-K poll incharge p11
Two days later, CCD ED grills Farooq for 6 hours
owner’s body found
Mangaluru/Bengaluru, July31
Billionaire coffee tycoon VG
Siddhartha, who went miss-
ing on Monday, is dead and
his body was recovered from
the banks of the Nethravathi
river near Mangaluru in Kar-
nataka on Wednesday.
Siddhartha (59), son-in-law
of BJP leader and former
External Affairs Minister SM
Krishna, was cremated in a
sombre atmosphere after
hundreds paid a tearful hom-
age to the ‘Coffee King” at his
Chetanahali estate in his
ancestral village in Chikkam-
agaluru. Siddhartha, whose
chain of cafes helped make
coffee a lifestyle beverage, is
survived by his wife Malavika
and sons Amartya and
Shy Harmanhockeyteamcapt Class IV staffer retires in style with copter ride
Indervir Grewal
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, July 31
Harmanpreet Singh, 23, has
come a long way in a short
time. Four years after making
his senior India debut as a
shy 19-year-old defender, he
today donned the mantle of
Indian hockey team’s cap-
tain. “It came as a pleasant
surprise,” he said.
In the absence of regular
skipper Manpreet Singh
and former captain PR Sree-
jesh, who have been
rested along with oth-
er senior players, Harman-
preet will lead India at next
month’s Olympics Test
event in Japan.
Harmanpreet, who
belongs to Jandiala Guru in
Amritsar, began his career in
2008 at the Malwa Academy
Jupinderjit Singh
Tribune News Service
The Punjab Police are carry-
ing out a massive cordon and
search operation (CASO)
across the state to tackle
drugs. Under focus are 125
sites, identified as havens
for smugglers and addicts —
the first such mapping of
drugs ever.
Not just nakas, bor-
der areas, bus termi-
nals, railway stations
and airports, the police
have spread deep into
the hinterland and in cities,
searching homes, fields and
riverine belts along the bor-
der with Himachal Pradesh
from where smugglers are
known to flee to the hill state
during raids. “CASO is our
special project to get to the
root of the problem,” says
CBI books MLA for rape victim’s accident Cabinet approves
Tribune News Service
Lucknow/New Delhi, July 31
The CBI has finally regis-
tered a case against Bangar-
mau MLA Kuldeep Singh
Sengar, his brother Manoj
Singh and eight named and
15-20 unidentified persons for
the Rae Bareli ‘accident’ that
grievously injured the Unnao
gangrape survivor and killed
her two aunts. The complaint
was lodged by the survivor’s
uncle, Mahesh Singh.
One of the accused, Arun
Singh, is reportedly the son-
in-law of Ranvendra Pratap
Singh alias Dhunni Bhaiya, a
INTERIM CHIEF
The CCD has appointed SV
Ranganath as the interim
chairman of the board of
directors and Nitin Bagmane
as an interim chief operating
officer of the company.
. office in Sector 18 around
Ishaan. A police official said
“everything” points to sui-
cide, but nothing could be
ruled out until the investiga-
tion was over.
The body was found by local
fishermen and patrolling
policemen, two days after he
went missing under mysteri-
ous circumstances. His body
was identified by his friends,
said Dakshina Kannada DC
Sasikanth Senthil. — PTI
Harmanpreet Singh
N KOREA TESTS MISSILES DESPITE
DIPLOMACY AT WORK WORLD
/thetribunechd /thetribunechd www.tribuneindia.com
125 SITES
MARKED
CONTRABAND
FOUND IN...
DGP Dinkar Gupta.
The move, initiated in June,
has picked up pace in the
past two weeks.
Along with teams of the
Special Task Force (STF), dis-
trict police teams are going
door-to-door, also covering
SP activists protest against the accident in Lucknow
CJI ASKS WHY LETTER NOT DELIVERED ON TIME
❝
Unfortunately, I was informed about letter only
yesterday and I am yet to see it... Newspapers have reported
as if no action was taken... We will try to do something in this
highly volatile situation. Ranjan Gogoi, CJI
Chandigarh/NewDelhi, July31
Former Jammu and Kashmir
CM Farooq Abdullah was
today grilled for almost six
hours at the Enforcement
Directorate office in Chandi-
garh in connection with the
multi-crore J&K Cricket
Association (JKCA) scam.
He had arrived at the ED
11.30 am along with security
personnel and lawyers and
questioned till 5.30 pm with
hardly any breaks.
Security forces, including
the UT Police, were on their
toes till Abdullah was inside
the ED building. No outsiders
were allowed to enter the
Government Printing Press
building that houses the ED
office on the first floor.
Later, Abdullah asserted
that he had “done no wrong”
in Ludhiana. After three
years, he shifted to Surjit
Academy, Jalandhar.
“When he came to us he
was a quiet boy,” recalled
Avtar Singh, the coach at Sur-
jit Academy. “But he was a
quick learner, focussed too.”
These attributes helped
Harmanpreet surpass most
of his seniors and contempo-
raries over the next few years.
The drag-flick expert’s big
break came when he was
called for the junior India
camp. “When he returned
from the camp, his confi-
dence had grown manifold,”
observed Avtar Singh.
During the Junior World
Cup in 2016, all eyes were
on the team. And Harman-
preet was a vital cog in the
winning team.
continued on page 7
2-WEEK HAUL
Total cases
registered
under NDPS Act
663 Total number
of arrests
made in the state
TIPS ON HELPLINE
25-30 calls received by
police every day; as
many as 1,930 in the
past two months
Bottles in rivers | Pits outside farmhouses | Cavities in
tractor-trailers | Tyres of vehicles | Overhead tanks
isolated houses in border
belts, slums and downtown
areas frequented by addicts.
As many as 663 persons have
been arrested and 406 FIRs
filed so far. On Tuesday, the
Ferozepur police found 2 kg
heroin in a plastic bottle near
REPORT ON PAGE 7
Farooq Abdullah after being questioned by ED on the J&K Cricket
Association scam in Chandigarh on Wednesday. TRIBUNE PHOTO
‘I’VE DONE NO WRONG’
❝
I’m open to scrutiny... It’s not the job of JKCA chief
to keep track of how funds are spent. Farooq Abdullah, EX-J&K CM
and was open to scrutiny. He
said it was not the job of the
JKCA president to keep track
of how the funds received
from the BCCI were spent. “I
Bijendra Ahlawat
Tribune News Service
Faridabad, July 31
A 60-year-old man getting off
a chopper on a dusty
makeshift landing area in
Haryana hinterland — it was
a spectacle the villagers of
Sadpura in Faridabad had
never witnessed before.
Neither was the man inside
a celebrity nor was it any
political landing. But it was a
dream-come-true for a Class
IV employee who always
wished to take a different
route to reach his house upon
superannuation.
Kure Ram had decided to
retire in style and his family
booked a chopper to fly him
home from the Government
Senior Secondary School in
Neemka, barely 2 km from
the village, where he worked
� haryana
ASHES: ENGLAND RETURN TO
‘FORTRESS EDGBASTON’ SPORT
PEOPLE BACKING US
These raids
are neither
random, nor a
shot in the
dark. These
raids are conducted after
Intelligence inputs. We are
receiving immense
cooperation from the people
Dinkar Gupta, PUNJAB DGP
the banks of a river in Nihala
Kilcha village along the Pak-
istan border.
The DGP says the raids are
neither random, nor a shot in
the dark. “These are informa-
tion-based after Intelligence
gathering. We have received
minister in the
Adityanath government and
a BJP MLA from Husainganj
Yogi
in Fatehpur.
The truck that rammed into
the car of the rape survivor
and his family in Rae Bareli
on Sunday too was from
Fatehpur. Arun Singh is a
block pramukh from Nawab-
ganj in Unnao. Two accused
Harpal Singh and Rinku
Singh are the husband and
son of gangrape accused
Shashi Singh. Earlier in the
day, a CBI team reached Rae
Bareli and collected evidence
at the accident site.
continued on page 7
have recorded my statement
today. The matter is sub-
judice and I have full faith in
the judiciary of the country,”
he said. — TNS/PTI
Chopper carrying Kure Ram (inset) arrives in Sadpura in Faridabad.
for 40 years. As Kure Ram
alighted from the helicopter,
he received a rousing recep-
tion from his relatives and vil-
lagers.
Shiv Kumar, Sadpura
sarpanch and Kure Ram’s
younger brother, said hiring
immense cooperation from
the people. They have come
out to inform us about hide-
outs in their areas.”
Intelligence reports are
being prepared on the basis
of clues provided by the pub-
lic on helpline 181. “We
receive about 25-30 calls
every day,” say officials. The
name of the informer is kept
confidential. “The police act
on complaints after due veri-
fication,” they say, adding
they received 1,930 tips/infor-
mation on this helpline in the
past two months.
The information is
processed and subsequently
the raids are planned, many
of which have yielded big
recoveries. Nearly 40 com-
plaints have been converted
into FIRs. A clue from the
public last month led to the
continued on page 7
raising strength of
SC judges to 34
Satya Prakash
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, July 31
The Union Cabinet on
Wednesday cleared a Bill to
increase the sanctioned
strength of the Supreme Court
judges from 31 to 34, including
the Chief Justice of India.
Information and Broadcast-
ing Minister Prakash
Javadekar said once Parlia-
ment gave approval to the
Bill, the number of sanctioned
strength of judges, including
the CJI, would reach 34 in the
Supreme Court.
Only recently, the Supreme
Court managed to fill all posts
of judges after a gap of almost
a decade. But despite that as
on July 1, there were 59,695
cases pending in the top court.
The Cabinet’s decision
comes a month after Chief
Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi
wrote to Prime Minister
Narendra Modi, seeking to
increase the strength of
judges in view of increasing
pendency of cases in the top
court due to filing of more
fresh cases.
The CJI had also written
about increasing the retire-
ment age of high court judges
from 62 years to 65 years, but
the government hasn’t acted
upon this suggestion.
The CJI had highlighted that
due to paucity of judges, the
required number of Constitu-
tion Benches to decide impor-
the chopper was his brother’s
idea. “Days before his retire-
ment, my brother told me he
wanted to celebrate the occa-
sion in a different way. It was
his dream to ride a chopper
and also to gift a joyride to his
family,” said Shiv. Educated
Will cooperate
with Punjab
cops: Kangra SP
Lalit Mohan
Tribune News Service
Dharamsala, July 31
There has been a spurt in cas-
es registered under the
NDPS Act in Kangra district
— 270 so far this year, the
highest-ever. As many as 311
drug peddlers have been
arrested in the district.
Kangra SP Vimukt Ranjan
says, “We will cooperate with
the Punjab Police.” The Kan-
gra police nabbed 90 per cent
peddlers from areas border-
ing Pathankot. The Himachal
police say most synthetic
drugs are make inroads into
the state from Punjab and
Jammu and Kashmir.
JUSTICE SN SHUKLA
CJI ALLOWS CBI TO
BOOK HC JUDGE
■ Chief Justice of India
Ranjan Gogoi has
allowed the CBI to
register a criminal case
against Justice SN
Shukla, a sitting judge of
the Allahabad High Court,
after an in-house panel of
judges indicted him for
granting favours to a pvt
medical college for MBBS
admissions. BACK PAGE
tant cases involving questions
of law were not being set up.
The original Constitution of
1950 envisaged a Supreme
Court with eight judges,
including the CJI, leaving it to
Parliament to increase the
sanctioned strength of judges.
Initially, the SC judges used
to sit together to hear the cas-
es presented before them. As
the cases began to accumu-
late, Parliament increased the
number of judges from eight
in 1950 to 11 in 1956, 14 in
1960, 18 in 1978 and 26 in 1986.
up to eighth standard, Kure
Ram initially used to walk to
the school for work, but
switched to bicycle and then
motorcycle over the period.
The family, including Kure
Ram’s three sons, con-
tributed Rs 3.30 lakh to book
the chopper, which took eight
sorties to ferry the family
from the school to the village.
“We aren’t a rich family nor
do we own any agricultural
land. But that doesn’t mean
we can’t live our life. Our
entire family got together
and fulfilled my brother’s
wish,” added Shiv.
Yogesh Sharma, a former
MLA who hails from the vil-
lage, described this as an
upcoming rage. “A groom in a
nearby area had brought his
bride to the village in a chop-
per two years ago,” he said.