Arrest warrants against former MLA

chandigarh:the punjab and haryana high court on monday admitted an appeal filed by the state government against the acquittal of the former bahujan samaj party (bsp) mla baldev singh bhatti and two others in a case of alleged kidnapping, rape and murder of a young girl in 1993. the division bench comprising justices h.s.bedi and a.s.garg,admitted the appeal filed against the january 4, 2001 judgement of the additional district and session judge, ferozepore, who had tried the accused in a case registered at police station dharamkot, district moga, under section 366 , 376, 302, 201 and 34 of the indian penal code for killing kulwant kaur, who was working as an auxilliary nurse at sai baba hospital,moga.she was allegedly brought to chandigarh by bhatti who promised to ensure confirmation of her job at the hospital. he allegedly kept her at the mla hostel, raped her and subsequently took her to kiratpur sahib where she was pushed into a canal. the complaint was filed by her father, gurnam singh, who had accompanied her to chandigarh and later to kiratpur sahib.he said he had been threatened with death if he made the matter public. at the time of the crime bhatti was a member of the punjab vidhan sabha from dharamkot (reserved) constituency. the bench also ordered issuance of bailable warrants against the accused. while admitting the appeal against the acquittal of bhatti and his two accomplices, justices bedi and garg took note of the state plea that the trial court has not considered the fact of the deceased having lived with the accused at the mla hostel. also, there was no reason why the trial court should have discarded an earlier version of the complaint. contempt notice the division bench comprising justices g.s.singhvi and m.m.kumar has issued notice to rajesh chhabra, ias, principal secretary to punjab government, local government department for november 28, to show cause as to why contempt proceedings against him should not be initiated for not complying with the undertaking given to the court by way of an affidavit. the orders came on a public interest litigation (pil) filed by charanjit singh gill of ludhiana whereby he had sought intervention of the high court to direct the punjab government to notify the punjab rent act passed by the state assembly in 1995 and assented to by the president of india in 1997. the state government had stated that though the east punjab rent restriction act currently in force did not meet the requirements of the present times it would not be proper to notify the new act and it did not provide for balancing provisions to protect the interests of landlords.the court was informed that in line with the recommendations of cabinet committee, amendments would be made in the act and the same would be presented to the legislature in its august/september session. govt withdraws order the writ petition challenging allocation of six assistant district attorneys of punjab to the legal aid services authority was disposed of by the division bench comprising justices amarbir singh gill and swatanter kumar on monday after the state government filed an affidavit to retain the petitioners in the directorate of prosecution, where they had joined in 1998.the allocation had been challenged by harinderjit singh and five others on the ground that the allocation was arbitrary and illegal. dhaki sahib case the punjab governments refusal to entrust the inquiry into the incidents of violence of december 1999 at tapovan dhaki sahib under police district khanna, to the cbi as recommended by the punjab state human rights commissions (pshrc) on april 30, 2001, has now been taken up in the punjab and haryana high court by the ihro through a writ petition. the petitioners, ihro president d.s.gill, and secretary inderjit kaur, have sought directions to the punjab government to implement the recommendations of the pshrc made by all the five members of the commission on the basis of investigation conducted by the adgp attached to the commission. they have also sought quashing of the order of the punjab home department of july 16, 2001 declining to entrust the probe to cbi. after an on-the-spot study of the situation at tapovan dhaki sahib , the ihro had moved the state human rights commission and submitted its findings highlighting how the district state administration , particularly the police, allegedly acting at the behest of the punjab minister jagdish singh garcha and ruling shiromani akali dal mla sadhu singh ghudiani, had sought to victimise sant darshan singh of tapovan dhaki sahib since he had sided with sant samaj on baisakhi day that year at anandpur sahib. following this, the matter was gone into by pshrc which favoured entrusting the matter to cbi. it had also sought staying the proceedings in the ludhiana court till the cbi submitted its report. justice ks garewal has issued notice to the punjab government for november 5.