CHANDIGARH: A day after four
armed robbers allegedly looted jewellery and cash worth around Rs 1.5 crore from a Sector 33 house, police investigators on Wednesday probed multiple angles and tried to find answers to many unanswered questions.
Cops questioned
Ajit Jain, the house owner, who runs a cold storage unit in Lalru, his wife, daughter and a helper to know the exact sequence of events.
A senior police officer on the condition of anonymity said besides trying to catch the robbers, the investigating team was also checking the insurance and loan documents of Ajit.
A police source close to the investigations said there appeared to be a number of loopholes in the
robbery complaint given to police by Ajit.
"We are probing all the angles. All I can tell you that we have good reasons to believe that there are many loose ends in the robbery incident reported to the police," said the senior officer, refusing to divulge anything further.
According to sources, cops were surprised at the timing of the incident and the fact that the family took an hour to inform the police.
"Almost all the robberies that have taken place in the Tricity in the recent past happened around midnight or post-midnight. Criminals don't take risks by entering a residential sector and a house at 7pm or 7.30 pm. And why waste an hour calling the cops?" said a source.
Sources said a guard and a driver remain present in the house all the time, but when the
robbers struck, both were found to be missing.
"Also, there were no signs of forced entry or struggle inside the house and the dog the family has kept was also of no help, as the four masked men entered without any opposition. Looks like too smooth a robbery to me," said an investigating officer.
Ajit, in his complaint to the police, had stated that he was not present in the house at the time of the incident and only his wife, daughter and a helper were there.
According to police officers, after the robbers had left the house, the family called Ajit, who reached home and then called the cops. "The family has also not told us the exact jewellery and amount robbers took along with them," said police officers.
Sources said the robbers did not leave any evidence behind, taking with them even the digital video recorder (DVR) containing the CCTV footage.
"We are questioning everybody to be sure that everything happened as was told to us," said a police officer.
According to the police FIR, on Tuesday evening, four masked and armed men had entered Ajit's house and forced the wife and daughter to open two lockers in the house and looted cash and jewellery.
"They held my wife and daughter on gunpoint and asked them stay quiet and show the safe where the jewellery was kept. Fear of getting harmed, they followed what the accused men asked them to do," Ajit had told cops in his complaint.
According to the complaint, the robbers rang the doorbell and waited till the domestic help came out. One of the robbers asked about Ajit, while other robbers pushed the helper. The complaint stated the robbers then forced the two woman at gun point to take them to the place where the valuables were kept and later fled in their car locking them inside in a room. The ordeal lasted for more than 30 minutes, complaint said.
Talking to TOI on Wednesday, Ajit said "I was away at a friend's place in Sector 16, when the incident took place. After the robbers had left, my wife managed to inform me and I rushed back home in a
distressed state of mind".
