Thieves decamp with 2.5L, jewellery from SAD leader’s house in P’kula

Thieves broke into the house of Punjab Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) vice-president and spokesman, Gurwinder Singh Bali, in Sector 7, Panchkula, and decamped with cash and jewellery on Monday night. Bali, in his complaint, said the incident took place while he, along with his wife, was away at his relative’s place in Sector 48, Chandigarh.

He said he had left home at 6pm on Monday, and went to attend a live debate by a news channel between 8 to 9pm, following which he joined his relatives over dinner. He said he returned home at 10.40 pm.

Bali’s son, who runs an IT office in Chandigarh, was also at his workplace when the incident occurred.

On reaching back home, when Bali tried to enter his house through the back door, he found it was bolted from inside. He then asked his wife if she had locked the back door while leaving, but she refused.

“Suspecting something was wrong, I entered the house from a different side and found a man with a pillow in hands. As I raised alarm, he fled from the back door,” said Bali.

Sector 7 police post in-charge assistant sub-inspector (ASI) Brij Pal said the complainant, upon inspection, found ₹2.5 lakh cash, 8 gold bangles, a pair of gold earrings, two gold necklace, two gold chains and a diamond ring missing from the house.

As per police sources, the thieves entered the house after breaking the grill of the kitchen at the front of the house.

ASI said there were four CCTV cameras installed in the house, but the thieves reportedly cut the wires and took the DVRs along. Pal said the police had initiated further probe in the matter and a scene of crime team also visited the spot.

Police said a forensic team collected samples and as per fingerprints, there were around two to three persons who carried out the crime.

A case under Sections 380 (theft in dwelling house) and 457 (lurking house-trespass) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) was registered against the accused at Sector 5 police
station.