Around three months back on the morning of April 23, Chandigarh Police control room received a call. The caller identified himself as Dilpreet Singh Dahan and threatened to carry out an attack in the Punjab and Haryana high court campus.
The short call put the entire police force on high alert and security was immediately beefed up at the high court. Posters of Dilpreet and other gangsters were pasted at entry points, all visitors to the court were frisked and their identities checked. The High Court Bar Association members held a series of meetings with the top brass of Chandigarh Police to review the security arrangements.
The threat eventually turned out to be a hoax but it was probably for the first time that security of the high court and the entire city was upped following a threat call made allegedly by a gangster.
It was also a pointer to the underlying state of fear, panic and insecurity the Tricity residents live in due to recent surge in big and bloody crimes.
The Tricity has witnessed a spate of gang killings in broad daylight, gruesome murders, carjackings, sensational kidnappings and a spike in chain snatchings — all of which have residents on edge.
According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) figures for 2016, Chandigarh has the second highest crime rate among all UTs. It got worse in 2017, as the numbers of murders and robberies remained almost the same while numbers of auto thefts, snatchings, and burglaries rose.
According to former cops and experts, it is but inevitable for the fear factor to go up with Punjab and Haryana gangsters carrying out hits in the Tricity.
“I worked with Chandigarh Police for over three decades but never saw such gang wars here in my days,” says former DSP Jagbir Singh, who retired last year. “Suddenly, we have these gangsters popping off each other, freeing their gang members from police custody, threatening highprofile residents, extorting money from them, kidnapping at whim, and shooting people dead in broad daylight. It’s unprecedented.”
According to Singh, failure of the police in solving high-profile cases contributed majorly in cementing the insecurity in the minds of residents.
“A sensational murder always sends shock waves but it’s more shocking if the crime is not solved. In the Tricity, we have many recent cases of heinous murders police have failed to crack. In some cases there have been no arrests. Obviously, if such cases start accumulating, you start to lose confidence in police,” adds Singh.
Associate professor and head of the Department of Police Administration at Panjab University, Akshat Mehta agrees. “An unsolved crime has a direct and long-lasting impact. Police failure in solving cases creates an environment of fear and panic,” says Mehta.
Among the recent high profile crimes police have failed to crack or arrest the accused include the murder of Sippy Sidhu, a lawyer and national-level shooter who was shot dead pointblank in a public park. Also, Akansh Sen, a relative of former Himachal CM Virbhadra Singh, was brutally killed by BMW occupants running him over, twice.
Experts point out that recent surge in snatching incidents have residents reaching their nerves’ ends. Even the Punjab and Haryana high court had snubbed the Chandigarh Police and asked it to curb rising snatchings while observing “residents don’t feel secure even inside their homes”.
While last year 238 cases of chain snatchings were reported, this year Chandigarh has already reported 118 snatchings. This is the highest in the Tricity. “Chain-snatching is generally considered a petty crime but it’s one of the most serious one,” says Gagan Aggarwal, an advocate at the Chandigarh district court. “When a criminal lays his hands on you directly, it speaks volumes about the law and order situation. Snatching cases have definitely fueled the feeling of insecurity, especially among women. They feared to come out of their houses wearing gold ornaments or carrying cash.”
Better coordination needed: Former cop
Gagan Aggarwal, an advocate at the Chandigarh district court, says, “Now that we have a new director general of police (DGP), hopefully fresh steps would be taken in coordination with Mohali and Panchkula before the situation gets out of control.”
According to another former Chandigarh Police DSP Vijay Pal, better coordination among Tricity police departments is a must for successful crackdown on crime as was also emphasized by Sanjay Baniwal, the new DGP of Chandigarh. To their credit, cops of the three parts of the Tricity have recently created a WhatsApp group to share information.
CMs, governor discussed it too
The issue of better coordination was also discussed between the three biggest decision-makers of the Tricity — UT administrator and Punjab governor V P Singh Badnore, Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh and Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar at the ‘It’s Chandigarh’s Time’ summit organized by the Times Of India.
“When I was in service we used to have meetings with the police officers of both Mohali and Panchkula every month. The police departments of the Tricity will have to join hands and fight crime together,” says Pal.
Representative image
