Elante mall carjacking in Chandigarh exposes tricity’s vulnerability to criminals - Hindustan Times
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Elante mall carjacking in Chandigarh exposes tricity’s vulnerability to criminals

ByShub Karman Dhaliwal, Chandigarh
Aug 12, 2018 02:12 PM IST

On Friday evening with crowds winding down for the weekend starting to trickle in at the mall’s popular nightspots, a local resident and her friend were robbed of the latter’s Honda City at gunpoint.

Friday evening’s carjacking from one of the busiest and most popular shopping spots in the tricity, the Elante Mall, once again exposes tricity’s vulnerability to hardcore criminals because of its porous borders.

(Representative Image)
(Representative Image)

On Friday evening with crowds winding down for the weekend starting to trickle in at the mall’s popular nightspots, a local resident and her friend were robbed of the latter’s Honda City at gunpoint at 8pm. The criminals escaped despite increased police presence due to Independence Day around the corner.

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This is also not the first time that criminals have targeted victims near Elante.

As many as 15 cases have been reported in the past five months in the tricity involving gangs associated with criminals Lawrence Bishnoi, Sampat Nehra, Yodha Singh alias Jodha, and others. On March 16, 30-year-old agriculturist Vikram of Abohar town was fired at by two men and took away his car. He was also being followed from Elante Mall and robbed of his car in Sector-35.

Harpreet Singh, son of the owner of Shri Gurudev Photography in Sector 17, who committed suicide last month, was kidnapped in his Mercedes and dumped at Elante Mall by carjackers after he paid a ransom of 3 lakh on February 21. Singer Parmish Verma was shot at and injured when gangster Dilpreet Dhahan shot at him in Mohali after following him from Elante.

As usual, police are groping in the dark in the latest case. Investigations so far suggest that the escape route chosen by the car-jackers was from Manimajra to Panchkula after crossing the Railway light point.

The failure of Chandigarh as well as Panchkula police to nab them further exposes the poor coordination among the tricity police.

Police officers investigating the matter say CCTV footage from the Elante gate shows two persons walking by but identification is difficult as the images are blurred. “Most cameras at different showrooms were not even working,” an official privy to the probe suggests.

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