The Panchkula police on Tuesday rounded up a Sector 4 resident who had picked up a mobile phone thrown by robbers in Sector 20 just after committing dacoity at a jewellery shop in Mansa Devi Complex on Sunday. The mobile phone belonged to a worker at the jewellery shop. The police rounded up one Harish Chaudhary, who works at an eatery in Sector 20 and hails from Nepal.

Harish, who was unaware that the mobile thrown by robbers was looted, inserted the SIM card of his own phone into the robbed phone, thereby giving a lead to the Panchkula police about the whereabouts of the phone. Recounting the incident, Harish said, “Around 4 pm, I was riding my cycle towards my workplace in Sector 20 when a white-coloured car passed by at a high speed. I saw the occupants of the car throwing a mobile phone out of the window.

I picked up the phone and found it to be switched off. I went back home to charge the phone and inserted the SIM of my own phone into it at 4.30 pm.

” The police are awaiting the report on the scene of crime by the team which had picked up samples from the Swift car, which was found lying abandoned in Zirakpur on Monday, to find a match from past criminal records. In the meantime, the Panchkula police has been unable to trace the identity of robbers from the footage retrieved from a CCTV camera installed at a petrol pump in MDC. Images of two cars were visible in the footage.

However, their picture quality is distorted upon zooming. The Panchkula police has claimed that after committing the crime, the robbers went towards Sector 20 and then to Dhakoli which took them about 10 minutes. “On Sunday, we had estimated the loss to be worth Rs 50 lakh.

After further assessment, the value of the loss incurred has risen to Rs 75-80 lakh. We have called one of are associates from Delhi to help us in assessing the final monetary loss and consequently give the final estimate to the police. Also, we were not aware that the police had found the Swift car yesterday.

It was only from today’s newspapers that we found out our car had been located,” said Rajat Khanna, the son of the shop-owner. “We are working in synchronisation with the Chandigarh, Mohali, Patiala and Nawanshahr police and regularly updating each other on developments in the case,” said Ajay Singhal, Commissioner (Panchkula-Ambala). “We have expanded our search operations into areas that are secluded and hub of criminals,” said Mohali SSP Inder Mohan Singh Bhatti.

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