Cops groped in the dark as crime graph soared

Sham Fashion Mall Murder:Creating a shock wave in city,owner of Sham Fashion Mall Amarjit Singh was shot outside his residence in Sector 35 on May 6. The police have still been groping in the dark to find the murderer,even as the motive behind the gruesome crime has not been established.

SBI Colony murder:A 42-year-old woman was found murdered in the crowded SBI Colony in Sector 42 on August 3. A wire was found in her mouth and postmortem suggested she was electrocuted,with the police ruling out rape. Status: the offender is absconding till date.

Nari Niketan rape case:In a major embarrassment to the Chandigarh Administration,a Nari Niketan inmate was found pregnant in May. After much initial confusion on whether the rape took place at Nari Niketan or Ashreya,where the girl was later shifted,the police arrested five employees of Nari Niketan. The issue of abortion of the child reached the Supreme Court which held that the child should not be aborted. After a girl was born,her DNA matched with an employee of Ashreya,who was then arrested. Interestingly,the police had failed to nail any employee of Ashreya during its initial investigation. Status: investigations still on.

Teachers’ recruitment scam:Two persons were arrested for demanding money from a woman to get her recruited as a teacher with the Education department. The accused allegedly demanded Rs 4.5 lakh from Kamalpreet Kaur. Even as police probed a nexus between touts and employees of the then Director Public Instructions (DPI) Samwartak Singh,investigations failed to find any evidence against any official. Samwartak,who had made 135 calls to the accused Jolly,was given a clean chit.

BKU rally,43 policemen injured:Scores of farmers went on the rampage during an agitation in September and held Chandigarh to ransom during the peak evening rush hour,leading to largescale violence that left scores injured,among them 35 policemen. The police arrested 40 of them in an attempt to murder case.

Sector-20 murder:Financier Harjinder Singh Dhillon was shot dead by five persons in his office in Sector 20 in November.

The police arrested prime accused Whiskey,a hard core criminal wanted since days of terrorism in Punjab,within a month after the crime.

Dispute over car finance was the reason for the murder.

The great Babla chase:Congress councillor Devinder Singh Babla,who was booked in a fraud case on August 19,openly challenged the police to arrest him and then managed to evade arrest for more than four months. With the court issuing proclamation notice directing him to appear,the police have failed to arrest him till now.

Baba Pritpal Singh on the run:Giving sleepless night to the Chandigarh police,Baba Pritpal Singh,chairman of Shiromani Sant Khalsa International Foundation and granthi at Gurudwara Gur Sagar Sahib near Sukhna Lake,managed to dodge them ever since he was booked in May in a land grabbing case.

While the High Court directed police to arrest Baba within a week in August,the SSP too received strictures for their repeated failure to arrest the baba. Status:He is still absconding while his anticipatory bail plea has been rejected.