A suspended warden of Faridabad jail was arrested on Thursday night for breaking into the houses of two Punjab-cadre IAS officers in ChandigarhтАЩs Sector 7 and stealing valuables.
The police identified the accused as one Jaswinder Singh Brar of Sirsa. They said that Singh had been suspended for stealing valuables from a government house of a policeman in Faridabad in 2019. Investigators stated that after being suspended, Jaswinder took to driving a grey coloured Hyundai Verna car around as a taxi through a rideshare app.
Police said that Jaswinder burgled the two houses when he had come to Chandigarh on a trip. Jaswinder was produced before a local court on Friday, that sent him to judicial custody.
According to the police, they have recovered many jewellery items that were stolen from the houses of IAS officers Sakshi Sawhney and Moneesh Kumar last month. While Sawhney is the Deputy Commissioner of Patiala, Kumar is posted as Deputy Commissioner of Tarn Taran. Two cases had been registered at the Sector 26 police station.
тАЬJaswinder Brar is a drug addict. He alone was involved in the burglary of the houses of two IAS officers and has confessed to the same. Jaswinder loves reading newspapers and was aware about the fact that the houses he had targeted were that of two Deputy Commissioners. He tried to sell the stolen jewelry, but failed. Jaswinder was arrested on the basis of human intelligence along with technical evidence,тАЭ Senior Superintendent of Police (UT) Kuldeep Singh Chahal said. тАЬThe accused has multiple theft cases registered against him in many districts of Haryana and was presently out on bail,тАЭ he added.
Patiala Deputy Commissioner Sakshi SawhneyтАЩs house was burgled on June 28 and Rs 2 lakh in cash, two pairs of gold earrings, a gold chain, a diamond earring set and a set of bracelets, besides other valuables, were stolen. KumarтАЩs house was targeted on July 24. Seven gold/diamond sets, 10-12 gold/diamond rings, 8-10 gold chains, three diamond bangles, one gold kara, four gold bangles, three to four watches, 15-20 silver coins, five to six gold coins, one diamond mangalsutra, two to three diamond rings, one gold chain and a gold/diamond topaz ornament were stolen from his house.
Station House Officer (SHO) of police station 26, Inspector Maninder Singh, said, тАЬBoth were cases of blind burglaries. There were no CCTV cameras installed at the houses or in the vicinity. We have an uncleared camera image of the suspected car that Jaswinder drove. We put the pieces of puzzle together after the second burglary. We grilled almost hundreds of people and before zeroing down on Jaswinder Singh Brar.тАЭ
The July 24 burglary at Deputy Commissioner Moneesh KumarтАЩs residence had worried local residents, with many citing lax police vigil in the area as a reason for such incidents.
