A gang of burglars broke into the house of a secretary of the Punjab and Haryana High Court in Sector 37D of Chandigarh and allegedly decamped with gold ornaments and cash. According to the police, the incident allegedly took place between 7.30 am and 12.30 pm on Friday, when the high court secretary, Gaurav Arora, and his wife, who is an Excise Taxation Officer, were away at work. As per details, a neighbour of the couple, identified as one Ashu, noticed the broken locks of the house in the afteroon and immediately contacted Gaurav on his phone. Upon their return home, the police said, Gaurav and his wife found that their house had been ransacked and locks of all their almirahs broken. The police said that the burglars gained access to the house, located on the ground floor, after breaking the front door locks. Investigators said that Gaurav in his complaint to them has claimed that some gold ornaments, including four pairs of gold earrings, and a pair of diamond earring, along with Rs 1.25 lakh in cash had been stolen from the house. A case was registered at Sector 39 police station, with a forensics team later visiting the house to inspect it and lift samples. Friday's burglary, however, was not a one-off incident. As per details available with the Chandigarh Police, as many as 59 cases of burglaries have been reported from the city in the last seven months or so. Before Friday, the last such incident had been reported from Sector 9, where a gang had broken into a house and allegedly decamped with gold ornaments worth Rs 1 crore, at least Rs 2.50 lakh in cash, and an undisclosed amount of British Pound Sterling. The incident had taken place between July 17 and July 20, when the house owner — one Aman Rai — and his wife had gone to Srinagar. Post returning home on July 20, they found their entire home ransacked. Rai had told the police that he had left the house under the care of his house help, who at present is being questioned in the case by the police. Similarly, the house of an NRI woman was found burgled in Sector 28 last Wednesday night (July 19). The burglars in that case had decamped with gold ornaments worth around Rs 10 lakh, along with Rs 4 lakh in cash, some imported wristwatches and four pashmina shawls.
