Gold chain snatched from IPS officer’s mother in Patiala

THE VICTIM IS FORMER HEAD OF JOURNALISM AND MASS COMM DEPT OF HIMACHAL PRADESH UNIVERSITY

PATIALA: In an embarrassment to police in Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh’s home town, snatchers struck at posh locality Urban Estate-2 on Tuesday morning, snatching a 30-gram gold chain of Vir Bala Aggarwal, mother of a senior IPS officer, from outside her residence. Till the time of filing of this report, police had not made any headway on her complaint, except examining the CCTV footage of the area.

The victim is former head of department of journalism and mass communication of Himachal Pradesh University, Shimla. Her son Kunal Aggarwal is IPS of batch of 2006, and posted as DIG in West Bengal.

In her complaint, she said she was sitting at the entrance to her house when a youth approached her for help in locating an address. As she got up, the man snatched her chain and fled on a motorcycle, won which another accused was waiting for him about 10 metre away. Shocked over it, she rang up her husband and police.

Residents added police have never been vigilant enough. “There are a lot of unscrupulous elements wandering inside the

Urban Estate and surrounding areas, and there is hardly presence of any police on roadside. There have been earlier incidents, in which the police didn’t act. In this case, the police have registered a complaint only because the victim is the mother of an IPS officer,” said Satinderpal Singh, an area resident.

Police had also been caught napping when the excise department had busted an illegal liquor factory in Rajpura, right on the GT Road bypass. Last month, a casino gambling racket was busted in Banur by the Organized Crime Control Unit (OCCU), Mohali, even as Patiala Police feigned ignorance. This time, 64 persons were nabbed.

Urban Estate SHO said police was examining CCTV footage of the area and the accused will be nabbed soon. A case has been registered under Section 379-B of the IPC against unidentified persons.