Latest news with #Harpreet
Indian Express
5 days ago
- General
- Indian Express
Chandigarh railway station redevelopment lags behind, passengers grapple with poor hygiene, crowding
Over a year after work began on a ₹462 crore redevelopment plan, the Chandigarh railway station remains a site of passenger discomfort, plagued by overcrowding, poor hygiene, inadequate seating, and safety concerns — despite official claims of 75 per cent completion. Part of the Centre's Amrit Bharat Station Scheme, the project was launched in January 2023 with a May 2024 completion target. It includes two G+3 buildings, 30 lifts, 10 escalators, a 72×80 meter air concourse, enhanced parking, AC restaurants, a food plaza, dormitories, and upgraded retiring rooms. Yet, for many of the 36,000 passengers who pass through the station daily, little has changed. 'I can't use these toilets — they're so unhygienic that anyone could get a UTI,' said Kiran, a traveller to Amritsar. 'The smell and the state of cleanliness are unbearable. You're just forced to hold it in.' Toilets remain in disrepair, with a few cleaning staff visible. The station's waiting areas are overcrowded, forcing commuters to sit or sleep on the floor. 'There's nowhere to sit. It's so uncomfortable in this heat,' said Harpreet, en route to New Delhi. 'It feels like an overcrowded market, not a train station.' Platform 1 was shut for nearly a month in mid-2024 for roof repairs, but passengers say there is little visible improvement. 'It just looks patched up. Nothing seems new,' said one commuter. Other platforms still lack proper surface pavements, posing difficulties for elderly or differently abled passengers. Wasim Khan, the construction supervisor overseeing the redevelopment, acknowledged delays. 'We've made progress, but it's a huge project. Realistically, it will take four years,' he said. He added that work on the DigiRoom and new water supply systems is underway. Safety remains a major concern, especially for women. 'My daughter studies in Delhi, and I have to personally drop her because I don't feel it's safe,' said Harpreet. 'There's hardly any police or RPF at night. It just doesn't feel secure.' Minimal CCTV coverage, inconsistent power backups, and a lack of crowd management continue to add to commuter woes. While food stalls remain functional and well-managed, passengers say they are not enough to offset the lack of basic infrastructure. 'The food stalls are fine, but they don't make up for the filth, the lack of seating, or the fear at night,' said Kiran. Officials from the Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA) did not respond to questions about the project delays or safety lapses. Station authorities said they were not authorised to speak on the matter. As work continues in phases, passengers remain cautiously hopeful. 'Trains are rarely on time, and the station is a mess,' said Kiran. 'But if the new facilities ever get completed, I just hope they'll finally give us a station that's clean, safe, and functional.'
NDTV
5 days ago
- NDTV
How Punjab Woman, Daughter Duped Bachelors To Exploit Their Desire To Settle Abroad
Ludhiana: A mother-daughter duo from Punjab's Ludhiana district found a novel way to dupe prospective bachelor emigrants to Canada by exploiting their eagerness to settle abroad. For seven aspiring bachelor 'emigrants', it was a double delight of getting married and settling in Canada. But it did not turn out to be so. They neither got the bride nor the emigration to Canada but instead ended up losing lakhs of rupees, police investigation has revealed. Sukhdarshan Kaur, who was arrested recently along with two others, would allegedly use the photographs and videos of her 24-year-old daughter Harpreet as a prospective bride for those wanting to get married and settle abroad. Harpreet went to Canada on student visa and was currently there on work permit. According to Doraha SHO Inspector Akash Dutt, seven victims have been identified and have come forward with their statements to the police so far. The modus operandi allegedly adopted by Sukhdarshan and other accused in the case was the same, he said. Sukhdarshan would follow the matrimonial advertisements in newspapers and then approach the families of the prospective grooms. She would tell them that her daughter Harpreet lived in Surrey, Canada on work permit after having studied there. Police said Sukhdarshan would fix her daughter's 'marriage' with those prospective grooms who wanted to settle in Canada but were unable to do so due to various reasons and limitations. The mother would make her daughter speak to the prospective grooms via video calls and then go ahead and hold engagement ceremonies of her daughter after reaching her 'fiances' homes with sweets. She would claim that she had incurred huge expenses on sending her daughter abroad, and had accrued a lot of debt. She would allegedly demand around Rs 20 lakh from every family she cheated. The final amount settled would be between Rs 15 lakh and Rs 18 lakh. All the payments were taken through bank transfers apparently to gain the confidence of the people she allegedly cheated. Just because of their eagerness to settle in Canada, none of the victims tried to cross check the facts about Harpreet, police said. Some of them even sold their land, animals and took loans to pay Sukhdarshan. Even some 'engagement' ceremonies were held through video calls. Police said Harpreet's mother would promise that a wedding would be solemnised within a few months after 'engagement', but later on kept giving excuses to delay it or even stopped taking calls. The lid on the modus operandi adopted by the accused over past more than a year was blown off when another such 'engagement' was to take place at a hotel in Doraha here on July 10, which involved a young man from Khanna here. While like in other cases where other young men were allegedly duped, Harpreet would not be present physically in this case too, and instead her framed photo was kept. In some cases, she joined through video call. However, the hotel where this 'proxy engagement' was to take place was raided on a tip-off to the police from another man hailing from a village in Bathinda, who claimed that a WhatsApp voice note meant for Harpreet was mistakenly shared by her mother to him. In that voice note, details of the fraudulent practice which had been adopted to dupe him and other men was allegedly being discussed as well as the 'pending' money that had to be collected from the man who hailed from Khanna. Police said a case under BNS sections 316(2) (criminal breach of trust), 318 (4) (cheating), and 61 (2) (criminal conspiracy) has been registered at the Doraha police station. Besides Sukhdarshan, the police have also arrested two more accused in the case, and further investigation is on.
Indian Express
6 days ago
- Indian Express
Harry meets 7: How mother-daughter duped Punjab families of lakhs, held proxy engagements, promised life in Canada
Till July 10, Jasdeep Singh, 27, of Faizgarh village in Punjab's Khanna city, was within touching distance of his Canada dream, all thanks to his scheduled 'engagement' to a framed photograph of Canada resident Harpreet Kaur, 24, aka Harry, at a hotel in Doraha, around 20 km from Khanna. Before the mangna (engagement) could take place, Khanna Police raided the hotel following a tip-off by Rajwinder Singh, 28, a Bathinda resident and Harpreet's 'fiancé' since July 2024. Rajwinder, a resident of Bathinda's Dullewala village, says an accidental WhatsApp voice note helped him blow the lid off the alleged racket. 'Harpreet's mother mistakenly sent me a voice note actually meant for her. In the voice note, she discussed the money they had to take from the Faizgarh family. She also told Harpreet to keep fooling and reassuring me regarding our wedding. That's when I decided to dig about Faizgarh family and got to know she was getting engaged to their son next,' says Rajwinder, who has studied till Class 10. While the July 10 raid came as a shock for Jasdeep and his family, it was an eye-opener for Khanna Police too: Seven men from across Punjab — all of whom allegedly got engaged to her over the past two years by proxy, either over video calls 'from Canada' or to her framed photograph — have accused the mother-daughter of taking lakhs of rupees from them under various pretexts in lieu of taking them to Canada after their marriage to Harpreet. While Khanna Police have arrested Harpreet's mother Sukhdarshan Kaur, her brother Manpreet Singh and their accomplice Ashok Kumar for allegedly duping men from Bathinda, Moga, Shahkot, Raikot, Barnala and Dharamkot seeking brides settled in Canada, a Look-Out Circular is expected to be issued soon against Harpreet, who went to Canada on a student visa and is currently there on a work permit. The police said the accused would target their victims either via matrimonial ads in newspapers or vicholas (local matchmakers). Sukhdarshan, a resident of Ludhiana's Jagraon, is a widow, said police. Explaining the modus operandi, Inspector Akash Dutt, Station House Officer (SHO), Doraha Police Station, says, 'Sukhdarshan, the mother, would fix Harpreet's marriage to men who wanted to settle in Canada but could not due to various limitations. She would then make Harpreet speak to those men and their families via video calls. She would then hold proxy engagement ceremonies of her daughter and reach fiancés' homes with a box of laddoos. Claiming to be very poor and having incurred huge debts to send Harpreet abroad, Sukhdarshan would soon start asking these families to compensate her for helping settle their sons in Canada. Since she readily agreed to bank transfers, the families didn't suspect much.' In the case of at least one family, police said, Sukhdarshan allegedly gave them a written agreement as guarantee of marriage. Police say the duped families never approached the police since Harpreet would keep talking to some of her fiancés for months. While Harpreet kept putting off the wedding ceremony, her mother would keep promising to return the money to the families concerned. Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) Harjeet Singh, the investigating officer in the case, says Harpreet too would play her part in the fraud. 'Harpreet would initially take calls from her fiancés and talk to them over video calls. In some cases, she too would demand money for medicines, pending rent, college fee, etc. Her mother too would ask these families for money to pay for Harpreet's return ticket to India but she would never come. If the fiancés refused to give them more money, Harpreet would stop taking their calls,' says the ASI. ASI Singh says that Sukhdarshan would promise a wedding within 2-3 months of these proxy engagement. According to Inspector Dutt, transactions worth at least Rs 1.60 crore in bank accounts belonging to the mother-son duo over the past two years are under the scanner. Pavittar Singh, whose son Jasdeep was set to get 'engaged' on July 10, says, 'Jasdeep wanted to settle in Canada and Harpreet had a Canada work permit. They had spoken on video calls before the engagement. Her mother demanded Rs 18 lakh to repay the debts she said she had incurred to send Harpreet to Canada. We had already given her Rs 1 lakh and spent Rs 40,000 on Harpreet's trousseau. Another Rs 6 lakh was to be paid after the engagement, but the police raid saved us.' Rajwinder, who tipped-off the police regarding Harpreet's July 10 engagement, alleges that his family was duped of Rs 18.50 lakh by the accused. 'We responded to their matrimonial ad. They told us she lives in Surrey (in Canada),' he claims. Though Harpreet's mother held their 'engagement' at a dhaba in Moga in July 2024, Rajwinder claims his family footed the bill of Rs 4,600. 'Sukhdarshan had promised that Harpreet would come to India in September for the wedding but she didn't. Soon, the mother-daughter started demanding money on various pretexts, so we sold off our land, our only source of livelihood. We gave Rs 6.50 lakh for Harpreet's overdue tuition, Rs 2.50 lakh for her airfare to India and Rs 1 lakh for her personal expenses, rent, etc. When we refused to give more money, Harpreet stopped taking my calls,' he says. Looking distraught as he waited to record his statement at Doraha Police Station, Gaganpreet Singh, 29, of Littar village in Ludhiana's Raikot, was accompanied by his parents and a paternal uncle. Gaganpreet, who got 'engaged' to Harpreet in February, says his family had paid Sukhdarshan Rs 8.50 lakh of the Rs 25 lakh she had demanded. Gaganpreet, who has studied till Class 9, says, 'I took a loan of Rs 6 lakh from my Canada-based sister. For the rest, I sold off our buffaloes and took another loan from my uncle.' His mother Manjit Kaur says the wedding was scheduled for May. 'My Canada-based daughter asked Harpreet to meet her, but they only spoke over video calls,' she says. Manjit adds, 'We gave Sukhdarshan Rs 8.50 lakh till the engagement. After that, she asked for Rs 2 lakh more. When I told her that we won't be able to pay up till the wedding, she started dilly-dallying. Ultimately, we told her to call off the wedding, but she never repaid us.' Most victims The Indian Express spoke to reported a similar modus operandi. Swaran Singh, 49, a resident of Kishanpura Kalan in Moga district's Dharamkot whose son Kamaljeet got 'engaged' to Harpreet in January 2024, says Sukhdarshan wanted them to pay her Rs 12.50 lakh. 'Till their engagement, we had given her Rs 5.45 lakh. Once, Harpreet asked Kamaljeet for Rs 2.30 lakh to pay her overdue college fees. We paid that too, but she disappeared,' he says. Her 'fiancé' Kamaljeet says they spoke over the phone for nearly nine months. 'She would only initiate the call when she needed money — for tuition or medicines. After I confronted her one day, asking her for details on her degree completion, job, etc., she stopped taking my calls,' he says. Daya Singh, a resident of Langewal village of Jalandhar's Shahkot whose son Rupinder, 24, a graduate, was 'engaged' to Harpreet, says Sukhdarshan wanted them to pay her 17 lakh, 'of which we paid Rs 5.50 lakh till their engagement'. He says, 'Harpreet and Rupinder spoke on the phone for 6-7 months. After their engagement, Sukhdarshan wanted more money to pay her college fee, but we refused. Harpreet stopped speaking to Rupinder after that.' Gora Singh, a resident of Vairoke village in Moga district, says Sukhdarshan duped him of Rs 6 lakh despite signing a 'written wedding agreement' on May 25, 2023. The 'agreement', a copy of which is now with the police, reportedly states, 'I am engaging my daughter to Gora Singh after taking Rs 6 lakh and they will pay the rest Rs 9 lakh after the marriage.' Joginder Pal Singh Sekhon, a former teacher from Powat village of Machhiwara, says his son Shudh Singh, 30, a Dubai-based driver, got 'engaged' to Harpreet on June 11 this year. 'We had seen their matrimonial ad in a newspaper. Sukhdarshan demanded Rs 15 lakh and came to our house with fake relatives. Since both were abroad, we solemnized their engagement using their photos. We have already transferred Rs 5 lakh to Sukhdarshan's bank account and the wedding was scheduled for December. We heard about her arrest recently,' said Sekhon. With many victims showing photographic evidence of their 'engagement', the police are now in the process of identifying the 'relatives'. ASI Harjeet Singh says, 'The same persons accompanied the mother and son to these engagement ceremonies as relatives. We are yet to identify them.' As she was being produced in court, Sukhdarshan told The Indian Express that she had duped multiple families because she had spent a lot of money to send her daughter abroad and was in debt — 'I took a loan of Rs 20-25 lakh to send my daughter to Canada. I have lost my husband. Majboori si (I had no other choice).' Divya Goyal is a Principal Correspondent with The Indian Express, based in Punjab. Her interest lies in exploring both news and feature stories, with an effort to reflect human interest at the heart of each piece. She writes on gender issues, education, politics, Sikh diaspora, heritage, the Partition among other subjects. She has also extensively covered issues of minority communities in Pakistan and Afghanistan. She also explores the legacy of India's partition and distinct stories from both West and East Punjab. She is a gold medalist from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), Delhi, the most revered government institute for media studies in India, from where she pursued English Journalism (Print). Her research work on 'Role of micro-blogging platform Twitter in content generation in newspapers' had won accolades at IIMC. She had started her career in print journalism with Hindustan Times before switching to The Indian Express in 2012. Her investigative report in 2019 on gender disparity while treating women drug addicts in Punjab won her the Laadli Media Award for Gender Sensitivity in 2020. She won another Laadli for her ground report on the struggle of two girls who ride a boat to reach their school in the border village of Punjab. ... Read More
Mint
29-06-2025
- Sport
- Mint
IND vs ENG: India include Punjab Kings spinner Harpreet Brar in training ahead of the second Test in Birmingham
The Indian management has called up Punjab Kings spinner Harpreet Brar in the national team's training session at Edgbaston in Birmingham ahead of the second Test against England, the visuals of which went viral in social media. The left-arm spinner was caught bowling at the India nets on Saturday. Having gained popularity with his performances in the Indian Premier League (IPL) for Punjab Kings. The 29-year-old was wearing a black training kit which clearly states he has just joined as a net bowler. Harpreet is yet to make his India debut.
Time of India
28-06-2025
- Time of India
NRI woman, father booked in cheating case
Ludhiana: Model Town Police have filed a case of cheating against a woman based in the UK and her father. The woman allegedly got a case of assault and rape filed against her husband in UK. Later, her father took Rs 18 lakh from the man's family on the pretext of working out a settlement. However, the accused failed to withdraw the case, as promised. The accused have been identified as London resident Harpreet Kaur and her father, Paramjit Singh of Bajra Colony. The FIR was lodged on the complaint of Dhanjeet Singh, a resident of Model Town, whose brother Satnam Singh married Harpreet Kaur. In his police complaint dated October 29, 2024, Dhanjeet said that his brother Satnam Singh met Harpreet and married her with the approval of their respective families on July 17, 2021. About a year after their wedding, Harpreet insisted that Satnam move to London. Dhanjeet added that his family bore the cost of their migration. While Harpreet went to the UK on study visa, Satnam accompanied her on spouse visa. However, after a few months, Harpreet allegedly got into an extramarital affair with a man she met at her university. In an attempt to end her marriage, she allegedly filed false accusations of assault and rape against Satnam, who was arrested by UK Police. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like เทรดทองCFDsกับโบรกเกอร์ที่เชื่อถือได้| เปิดบัญชีวันนี้ IC Markets สมัคร Undo He received a sentence of eight years in that case. The complainant said, "When we came to know about the case against Satnam, we approached Harpreet's father, Paramjit Singh, who demanded Rs 18 lakh in front of the village panchayat to withdraw the case. However, the accused did not withdraw the case even after receiving Rs 18 lakh. Thereafter, we lodged a police complaint." Sub-inspector Sita Ram from Model Town police station said that the police conducted an inquiry after receiving a complaint, following which a case was filed against the duo under Section 318(4) (Cheating) of BNS. MSID:: 122132033 413 |
