COURTESY HT JUNE 27

Alind Chauhan ■ alind.chauhan@hindustantimes.com
Three burglaries in one week rock Sector 57
DWELLERS CONCERNED Residents say all incidents took place in the day, allege police laxity; cops deny allegations, say they are working on the cases
Gurugram A spate of daytime burglaries in Sector 57 has caused concern among residents, many of whom are now planning to relocate to gated condominiums that have sound security arrangements.

PARVEEN KUMAR/HT
■ Residents said that the Huda township has several vacant plots and most residents of the township are working couples. They have not been able to raise funds for a boundary wall.
According to the residents’ welfare association of Sector 57, there have been at least three burglaries in the past seven days in the area, a plotted township developed by the Haryana Urban Development Authority (Huda). “The number of such cases has been on the rise since May,” said Tejinder Sehrawat, vice-president of the RWA.

Residents said that as the locality lacks boundary wall and security gates, thieves can easily break into the houses and steal valuables. They said that as most of the plots in the area are vacant, residents have not been able to collect money to build a boundary wall. “Despite repeated incidents of burglaries, the police patrolling has been lax,” Sehrawat said.

However, Pardeep Dangi, SHO, Sector 56 police station, denied the allegations. He said, “There have been only one or two incidents of theft recently in the area. We have registered these cases and are investigating them with the crime branch and other police forces. Our officers regularly patrol the area. In the past, we have nabbed the suspects in many burglaries and are trying our best to deal with the issue.”

RS Yadav, RWA president, said that most of the recent incidents took place in the daytime. He said, “Most of the residents in the area are working couples. Most of the incidents take place during the day, because the occupants are at work.”

On Monday afternoon, two burglaries were reported from the area within a short span. Unidentified persons allegedly broke into a house in the area and decamped with jewellery, cash and foreign currency while the occupants were at a hospital in the city.

“Around 2.30pm on Monday, I went to a hospital with my family. When we returned home around 6.30pm, we saw that the lock at the entrance was broken. One gold set, four gold bangles, four gold earrings, four silver coins, ₹35,000 and $600 were missing from the house,” Jai Prakash Sharma said in the first information report, which was accessed by HT.

The same day around 1pm, at least two men allegedly jumped on the second floor of a house and stole three gas cylinders. Vinay Aneja, a businessman and owner of the house, said that this was the third time in at least two months wherein gas cylinders were stolen from the house.

Around a week ago, three men allegedly broke into a house in the area and stole jewellery and cash. The incident was captured by a CCTV camera installed on the premises but the men are yet to be arrested. Sunil Magon, the owner of the house, said, “My tenant had gone to a market in the afternoon, around 1pm. When he returned after an hour, he saw that his house had been ransacked. The thieves had stolen jewellery worth at least ₹3 lakh and ₹15,000 in cash. The CCTV footage showed that the three men jumped into the house and broke the lock of the entrance door with the help of a sharp tool.”

Residents said that an FIR was registered in both the cases, but HT could not independently verify this.

Yadav pointed out that one of the challenges in the sector is that there is lack of interaction among residents, which prevents them from coming together and becoming the eyes and ears of the locality.

“The locality does not celebrate festivals together or go on evening walks in a group, which is common in gated societies,” Kalra said.

Girish Kalra, a veterinary doctor, has been living in Sector 57 for four years but now wants to sell his house and move to another area, after his house was burgled on May 15, when he and his wife were at work.

Kalra said, “When I returned home from my clinic in Jhajjar, I saw that the lock. The wardrobes were ransacked, three lockers were broken and the thieves had stolen jewellery worth ₹10 lakh and around ₹25,000 cash