Latest news with #AvtarSingh
Time of India
a day ago
- Politics
- Time of India
‘Space shortage' in Urdu dept: PU student seeks VC's intervention
Chandigarh: A student from the Urdu department at Panjab University has raised concerns over a reported classroom shortage, claiming that academic courses are currently being conducted in a single room. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Avtar Singh, a student affiliated with SOPU, has written to the vice-chancellor highlighting the alleged lack of basic infrastructure in the department. The letter, also marked to senior university officials, said one of the two rooms allotted to the department is being used for office work, faculty space, and storage, leaving only one classroom for all academic activities. The department reportedly offers multiple diploma and certificate courses in Urdu and Persian, along with MA Urdu (first and second year), yet faces a space crunch that, according to the student, is hampering academic quality. The letter points out that several part-time students enrolled in the department are serving officers and artists, and many prominent personalities have been alumni of the department. It urges the administration to immediately allocate additional classrooms and to review overall space utilisation across departments. A pamphlet uploaded on social media criticises the lack of action by both the university and student leaders, calling it a question of dignity and institutional standards.
Time of India
3 days ago
- General
- Time of India
Online trolling wars at PU escalate into real-world clashes, harassment complaint filed by one
Chandigarh: What began as anonymous trolling and meme warfare among student factions at Panjab University has now spilled into the physical campus, sparking formal complaints and growing concerns about safety and political intimidation. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now In recent weeks, Instagram pages — many featuring anime, Ghibli-style art or AI-generated visuals — have targeted students with vague threats of 'scandals', trolling, and personal attacks. Some pages appear aligned with student organisations, while others mock leaders, professors and even grieving students. PU student Avtar Singh was among the first to formally raise a red flag. In a detailed complaint to the cyber cell, Singh alleged that a fake chat containing inappropriate messages, falsely attributed to him, was circulated to university-linked Instagram pages in an apparent attempt to defame him. "I want to make it absolutely clear that I have never sent any such messages," Singh said. "This was a deliberate attempt to humiliate me because I have raised questions about how things work here. The person behind it didn't succeed, but the damage and mental stress were real." Singh's complaint also mentioned that the same account had earlier left offensive comments on his photos before vanishing altogether on May 1. He has asked the police to trace the identity behind the handle and take legal action under cybercrime and defamation laws. Last week, members of the Students Organisation of India (SOI), allegedly accompanied by two to three outsiders, entered the university library and pulled a student out from the second floor and indulged in a physical spat. According to witnesses, the student had uploaded an Instagram story mocking a party member's reel in which they were seen throwing aside barricades near library. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now No official complaint has been filed in the incident, but it has caused unease among students, many of whom now fear retaliation over what they post online. The university administration had already asked Chandigarh Police in April to act against pages misusing its name and spreading misinformation. A committee is also working on a campus-wide social media code. "We have received some inputs and informal complaints about recent incidents on campus," said chief of university security Vikram Singh. "We are looking into them seriously. Ensuring a safe and secure campus atmosphere remains our priority."
New Indian Express
28-05-2025
- New Indian Express
Auto-lifters' gang busted, four nabbed from Punjab
NEW DELHI: Delhi Police has busted an inter-state syndicate of auto-lifters and arrested four Punjab-based receivers of stolen vehicles. They have been identified as Avtar Singh (40), Harpreet Singh (32), Paramdeep (42), and Manpreet (29), officials said on Tuesday. A total of 21 luxury cars were recovered from the accused. According to police, they studied the pattern of vehicle thefts, including timing and CCTV footage from various cases, which revealed that the accused mostly operate at midnight and primarily target luxury cars. It was found that some receivers from Punjab were active in Delhi, taking stolen cars to Punjab and selling them, especially in border districts. 'On May 7, information was received that Avtar would come in a stolen car with a fake number and go to Punjab. A trap was laid, and the vehicle was intercepted. Avtar and Harpreet were inside the car. Upon checking the engine and chassis numbers, the car was found to have been stolen from Saket,' Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Apoorva Gupta said. Both accused disclosed that they receive stolen cars and sell them in Amritsar and Ludhiana. They used to receive cars from Dashrath and Raj Kumar. The recovered car had also been received from them a few days earlier.
Indian Express
27-05-2025
- Indian Express
Vegetable vendors by day, sellers of stolen SUVs at night: Delhi cops bust auto-lifter gang
They sold vegetables by day and sold stolen luxury cars by night. This inter-state auto-lifting racket was running smoothly till the Delhi Police Crime Branch swooped in. They arrested four Punjab-based receivers and recovered 21 high-end vehicles — including Fortuners, Thars, and Cretas — all bearing fake number plates, forged registration certificates, and tampered chassis and engine numbers, police said Tuesday. The crackdown followed weeks of surveillance and pattern analysis, said police. Investigators noticed that the gang's operations were well-oiled and peaked around midnight, targeting luxury vehicles, which were stolen in a matter of minutes and moved to Punjab, especially its border districts. On May 7, based on a tip-off, a police team intercepted a stolen blue Baleno on the DND Flyway en route to the KMP expressway. The vehicle, bearing fake plates, was reported stolen from South Delhi's Saket. The two men inside — Avtar Singh (40) and Harpreet Singh (32) — were nabbed. A forged registration certificate was also seized from them, said police. During questioning, the duo admitted to being long-time receivers of stolen vehicles, which they sold across Amritsar and Ludhiana after modifying the cars and forging documents. They named their suppliers and admitted to involvement in 15-20 similar transactions. Police subsequently took them on a 10-day remand and launched raids in Punjab's Amritsar and Tarn Taran districts, leading to the arrest of two more accused — Paramdeep of Ludhiana and Manpreet of Ferozepur. Police said their probe revealed a consistent modus operandi: the gang purchased stolen high-end vehicles for Rs 4-5 lakh each, tampered with identification numbers, generated fake registration papers, and resold the cars as legitimate all over Punjab. The accused came from varied backgrounds. Avtar Singh, a former property dealer turned vegetable vendor, had previously been arrested in Amritsar and was linked to over 10 vehicle recoveries. Harpreet Singh, a BCA graduate with a stint in Cyprus as a pig farmer, turned to auto theft after returning to India. Paramdeep once ran an auto-parts factory that collapsed during the pandemic, pushing him into illegal vehicle trading. Manpreet, a civil engineer and former driver, also had two past arrests and a pending divorce case. The recovered vehicles span across multiple police jurisdictions in Delhi and beyond, including Saket, Shalimar Bagh, Tilak Nagar, Khyala, Dwarka, Keshav Puram, Vasant Vihar, and even Ghaziabad and Gurgaon.
Hindustan Times
14-05-2025
- Hindustan Times
Hooch tragedies: 176 deaths in 5 years in Punjab but no lessons learnt
Since 2020, Punjab has witnessed the deaths of over 170 individuals due to spurious liquor but it seems no lessons have been learnt by the authorities. On Tuesday, at least 21 people, mostly daily wagers, died and 10 others were hospitalised after allegedly drinking spurious liquor in Majitha. Ten people, including the alleged kingpin, were arrested while deputy superintendent of police (Majitha) Amolak Singh and station house officer of Majitha police station Avtar Singh were suspended for negligence. A year ago, 20 people lost their lives in a hooch tragedy in Sangrur. Here too the spurious liquor was made using methanol as a base and was manufactured locally. Over the years, various probes and findings suggested course corrections but most of the reports have been consigned to the dustbin with the state administration only getting active after a tragedy. In this case, a fact-finding team comprising local officers conducted a probe and submitted a report to the government through the deputy commissioner. The probe committee, headed by the Dirba sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) with the deputy superintendent of police (DSP), station house officer (SHO), senior medical officer and an excise and taxation officer as its members, had studied the reason behind thriving illegal liquor business in the state. It had recommended the creation of a separate 'wing' in the Punjab Police focused on curbing the manufacture and sale of illicit liquor. As per the report, this wing would be dedicated to tracking bootlegging, especially in the border districts adjoining Haryana state, the report had said. However, these recommendations were neither discussed nor implemented. 'It was also recommended that excise department officials play a more proactive role as illegal hooch is not only a threat to people's lives but is also causing huge losses to the state exchequer. It affects the sale of country-made liquor in wine shops. I don't think that report was ever discussed anywhere,' an officer of this committee told HT on the condition of anonymity. A Punjab Police SIT, led by then ADGP (law and order) Gurinder Singh Dhillon, which probed the criminal angle in the case, had also suggested making local SHOs and DSPs responsible for the sale and manufacturing of illegal liquor. 'I could not complete the probe as I had opted to take voluntary retirement. But our SIT had suggested fixing the responsibility of the local SHO and his superior DSP. It is such a deep-rooted nexus that it is not possible that local police weren't aware of the sale of such liquor. In that probe, we had also found the need to have local law officers monitoring the sale of methanol,' said the former ADGP, who after his retirement had joined the Congress. In August 2020, during the Corona epidemic, when liquor vends were closed, Punjab faced yet another hooch tragedy, this time in the districts of Tarn Taran, Amritsar, and Batala. More than 135 people were reported dead. The incident sparked protests and renewed demands for more decisive action against those involved in the illicit alcohol trade. Interestingly, the police probe into this hooch tragedy, which was one of the worst in the country, had found an organised gang running this network. Then DGP Dinkar Gupta pushed for having Punjab Control of Organised Crime Act (PCOCA) like stringent laws to deal with such cases. However, after an initial push by then CM Capt Amarinder Singh-led state government, the introduction of the strict law as put on the backburner. 'Interestingly, in all major hooch tragedies, the use of methyl alcohol (methanol) was the reason behind the deaths. However, no regulation of law has come in place in Punjab,' a retired excise official said, pleading anonymity. Spurious liquor menace 2020 Over 135 people killed in Amritsar, Gurdaspur with Tarn Taran reporting 95 2024: 20 people died in Sangrur 2025: 21 dead in Majitha region of Amritsar district
