Cops grope in dark in Nalagarh shootout case

A day after an unidentified miscreant fired indiscriminately at a Fortuner SUV of a scrap dealer at Dadi Kania village near Khera in Nalagarh sub-division, the police are groping in the dark about the identify and the motive behind the crime.

A police press brief stated that an FIR under Sections 341, 506, 147 and 149 of the IPC for wrongful restraint, criminal intimidation and rioting was got registered by the victim Ramkrishan earlier this year at Barotiwala over a dispute pertaining to securing scrap from a multinational company. The investigating officials were, however, yet to establish a link to that case till now.

The police were clueless about the miscreant who had escaped after firing at the bullet proof vehicle of Ramkrishan, who escaped unhurt in the incident.

Though the Baddi police district has a network of many close-circuit cameras installed at various vantage points, it was yet to be ascertained where the miscreant had escaped after the shootout and from where he had come.

Additional SP Baddi Ashok Verma said efforts were afoot to trace the miscrean,t besides identifying him and various aspects were being probed in this regard.

The police were yet to ascertain the weapon used in the crime, though a forensic examination of the spot had already been undertaken.

With the high court casting doubts over the shoddy investigation in at least two cases and raising questions as to why suspended officials did not choose to surrender after the cancellation of their bail, the working of the Baddi police is already under scanner.

Still worse, the Nalagarh police had failed to undertake a thorough probe in a case where members of a minority community had allegedly brandished arms to intimidate a youth from a majority community at Nalagarh earlier this month. While no arrests were made in that case, the police did not inquire about the use of arms in the case.

The main accused from Nuh in Haryana, who had planned and executed a Rs 19-lakh ATM loot from Bagbania village on the Baddi-Nalagarh highway in August, were yet to be arrested. Barring a few thousands, no seizure had been made in that case despite the police claims of having undertaken a thorough investigation.

The deteriorating law and order at the state’s bordering area of Dhabota was exposed in May, with mining mafia threatening members of a mining team with sharp weapons after the latter had detected illegal mining near Bodla Khud in the Dhabota area.

The mining mafia, which had rushed to the spot to free vehicles, forcibly took the mining inspector with them to Punjab. The mafia also managed to free vehicles seized by the team. The mining inspector was permitted to go after 45 minutes on the intervention of the Punjab Police.