Woman forced into car, Rs 1 Lakh gold stolen

CHANDIGARH: A gang of tricksters which offers lifts to senior citizens and then steals or robs them of their gold jewellery, struck again on Friday. This time, the gang comprising two women and a man conned a 65-year-old woman of two gold bangles worth more than Rs 1 lakh near Sector 34 police station.




Police have registered a case of theft and cheating but are yet to collect any clues. Two such crimes took place in Zirakpur and Chandigarh in September this year. At that time too, the gang had adopted the same modus operandi.

In her complaint, Harminder Kaur alleged that she was returning to her home in Sector 35 around 10.30am, after paying obeisance at Gurdwara Shri Guru Teg Bahadur Sahib in Sector 34 on Gurpurb, when the crime took place.

Harimder claimed that she first waited outside the gurdwara for a rickshaw to go home. As she could not find one, she started walking towards Sector 35. When she was near the government dispensary right next to the police station, a “big”, whitecoloured car stopped next to her and two women sitting in the back seat offered her a lift.

She said the man was driving the car and the women seemed to be aged between 40 and 45. Though Kaur declined the lift offer, the two women insisted and the one sitting on the left side got off the vehicle and nudged the senior citizen into the car.

Harimder alleged that she was seated between the two women and the accused drove the car around in Sector 34 for around five minutes. The accused then dropped her near ‘Piccadilly Roundabout’, which divides sectors 21, 22, 34 and 35, and drove away from the spot. After some time, Harminder realized that the two gold bangles she was wearing, and which weighed around 30 grams, were missing.


Couldn’t note down car’s number

As the car had already left, she could not note down the registration number of the vehicle.

She informed her family about the incident over the phone, following which the complainant’s relatives reached the spot and informed the police about the crime. A police team also reached the spot and took the woman to the Sector 34 police station for taking down the complaint.

DSP (public relations) Pawan Kumar said they were checking footage of CCTV cameras installed around the crime scene to get clues to the accused. Meanwhile, two men lost their mobile phones to snatchers in Sector 37 and Phase II of Industrial Area on Thursday night.

Police have registered cases, but are yet to identify the accused.

Jagatpura resident Sant Ram alleged that he was returning home from work around 9.30pm when two motorcycle came from behind and snatched his mobile phone in Industrial Area. Ram informed cops with the help of passersby. The second snatching took palce near Sector 37-41 light point. Sector 38 resident Rahul alleged that he was walking to his tuition class when two men riding a Honda Activa came up from behind and snatched his mobile phone when he was talking to a friend on it.