Two days on, cops fail to make headway in molestation cases : The Tribune India

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Two days on, cops fail to make headway in molestation cases

Safety is an issue at the botanical garden at Panjab University. TRIBUNE PHOTO: RAVI KUMAR

Amit Sharma

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 11

Even two days after a woman journalist and a 19-year-old girl were molested, the UT police are still grappling to make a headway in both cases.

Molester had visited PEC earlier too

The youth who molested the 19-year-old girl had visited PEC earlier too. Police probe has revealed that the molester had visited PEC before the incident as well. They have procured footage of CCTV cameras installed at PEC in which the suspect in seen roaming inside the campus a day before the incident. The police have procured the footage of CCTV cameras installed at six locations to get a clear image of the suspect.

While the journalist was molested during a morning walk at the PU’s botanical garden, a 19-year old girl was molested in a forest area near PEC while she was on the way to her institute.

Police officials claimed that several teams, comprising around 50 cops, had been entrusted with the task of tracing the molesters.

Inspector Rajiv Kumar, SHO, Sector 11 police station, said the police were visiting nearby areas with a sketch of the suspect in the PU case and with CCTV grabs of the youth in the other case.

“Our teams are showing the sketch of the middle-aged man and CCTV grabs of the youth in his early twenties to local residents as both are suspected to be from adjoining areas,” the SHO said.

The police said they had extended the search operation to Nayagaon, besides Sarangpur, Khuda Lahora, Dadu Majra Colony, Sector 25 Colony and Dhanas.

Police sources said they were also keeping an eye on roads adjoining the PU, including the road that leads to Dhanas and the road towards the garbage processing plant.

Parks in city lack CCTV cameras

The absence of CCTV cameras on the road adjoining the PU has left the police helpless. The stretch from the PU towards Dhanas and the lake is surrounded by a forest cover and CCTV cameras in the area could have provided leads in the case. Interestingly, the MC has failed to light 9,300 dark spots in the city. City parks also lacks CCTV cameras and the MC has no proposal to bring parks under CCTV surveillance.

A police team also visited the dumping ground to verify waste collectors.

The police also searched the forest area near Dhanas and collected pictures of people residing in four tubewells located in the forest area.

The police have also sought information about around 100 “sewadars” (volunteers) at the Kali Bari temple adjoining the PU. “Since a person resembling the one in the sketch was seen near the temple, the suspect could also be a ‘sewadar’, following which we have asked for the photographs of all of them,” said a police official. The police said they were collecting pictures of 210 Class IV employees, 198 security guards and mess canteen workers, which would later be shown to the complainant for identification.