Looking Back 2022: Law and order crumbles, almost every month major crimes jolted Jalandhar

Avneet Kaur

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Jalandhar, December 21

Be it the broad daylight killing of international kabaddi player Sandeep Singh Nangal Ambian by armed assailants, the carjacking of a man’s BMW from the posh Model Town locality, brutal killing of a nurse at a private hospital, rape of a 75-year-old elderly woman or the recent double murder of Nakodar-based businessman Timmy Chawla and his gunman Mandeep Singh, the year gone by is going to be remembered by the Jalandhar police for many wrong reasons.

Since the very beginning of this year, the cops remained on their toes. The unabated instances of robberies, snatchings, rise of gangsters and gang wars, firing incidents etc all proved to be a big headache for the department. In January, two miscreants snatched a BMW car of a city-based businessman at gunpoint from outside Hot Drive in the Model Town locality.

Close on the heels of this incident came another carjacking incident in which some unidentified armed robbers snatched a Hyundai Creta from a doctor near Johal market. Though the police managed to crack these cases within some days, the incidents instilled a sense of insecurity among the residents.

The city also witnessed some heinous crimes this year. A nine-year-old girl was brutally raped by a 35-year-old man in Kartarpur, who allegedly took her to the fields on the pretext of giving her a papaya. Not just this, the year 2022 also proved that the city is no longer safe for women. The most shocking incident of the year remained the rape of a 75-year-old woman, who had no arms. An auto driver raped the elderly woman in a secluded area near Rama Mandi, that too in the afternoon.

Incidents of other crimes too had been on the rise this year. A number of innocent people lost their lives due to gang wars. The most dreadful were the killing of kabaddi player Ambian during a kabaddi match in Nakodar, a triple murder at Shiv Nagar besides the murder of the businessman and his gunman.

The frequent instances of attack, theft, robbery and snatching in broad daylight also didn’t fail to grab media attention and forced residents to stay indoors. Some of these cases include the attack on Congress leader Deepak and AAP worker Rakesh Mahajan outside their houses in Shiv Nagar at Basti Danishmanda and Killa Mohalla, respectively. The firing incidents reported at Gopal Nagar, Mohalla Satran, Basti Sheikh, Dolphin Hotel and the attack on an employee of Cantonment Board by over 10 men with sharp-edged weapons at Dussehra Ground besides daylight robberies in which cash and gold worth lakhs were stolen from houses and Rs 13 lakh stolen from UCO Bank also brought a bad name to the police. Lack of vigil was quoted to be one of the main reasons behind these incidents.

Moreover, police commissioners were also changed in the city within a short span. At the start of 2022, Naunihal Singh was the CP. However, in April Gurpreet Singh Toor took charge as the head of the police force. However, he could render his services only for two months, and in June, Gursharan Singh Sandhu was named as the Jalandhar CP. Then again, last month, S Boopathi replaced Sandhu to be the new CP of Jalandhar city.

Apart from facing the wrath of residents over the deteriorating law and order situation, the police department was also forced to deal with embarrassment after the videos of its cops beating one another using a baton and hurling abuses on demolition drive victims went viral over the social media.

Lows & Highs

• Murder of Sandeep Nangal Ambian, Timmy Chawla and others
• Five hardcore criminals including two members of Aman-Fateh gang nabbed
• Frequent carjacking cases, firing incidents, snatching incidents, robberies and thefts
• Gangster Pancham Noor, his two aides landed in police net
• Four CPs changed in city
• Special cyber fraud awareness drive
• No major drug haul busted by city police
• Crackdown on illegal travel agents, recovery of over 500 passports
• Viral video of cop beating another cop, senior officer hurling abuses on a man at Latifpura
• n Vigil increased at PPR post, increase in hooliganism
• n Majority of the search-and-cordon operations including the Qazi Mandi one failed as no major recoveries were made
• n Fake vehicle registration scam busted by Vigilance Bureau, besides a number of police officers nabbed red-handed while taking bribes