Thaindian News

Gurgaon, Jan 2 (IANS) The drunken hooliganism witnessed here during New Year celebrations, when hundreds of revellers created ruckus on the Mehrauli-Gurgaon Road and even molested a woman, occurred due to shortage of police personnel, eyewitnesses said Monday.

Hundreds of youths took over the MG Road area post midnight Saturday, dancing and singing in the middle of the road. Windscreens of more than two dozen cars were smashed, hooligans danced atop cars and traffic was held up, before some cops baton-charged the mob.

Around 30-40 youths harassed a group of five women outside the Sahara Mall on MG Road. They molested a woman from the group and even tried to kidnap her.

“There wasn’t sufficient police force outside the Sahara Mall,” an eyewitness Jaibhagwan Yadav, a resident of Gurgaon’s DLF Phase Four area, told IANS.

“Entry was stopped at 10.30 p.m. that night as the pubs were full. People then gathered outside the mall and started consuming liquor in the open,” he said.

Another eyewitness Shekhar Goyal said: “Hundreds of people were present there. But just a single PCR van and a traffic police jeep with four constables were there at the spot. At midnight, the guys started hooting and chanting ‘happy new year’ and virtually took over the MG Road.”

When the situation got out of hand, additional securitymen were called, including troopers of the Indian Reserve Battalion (IRB).

Two policemen Pawan Kumar and Ravi Singh were injured in the baton-charge and are undergoing treatment in hospital.

Meanwhile, police said no arrests have been made in the molestation case.

“We have detained some people and are investigating the case,” Station House Officer of Sector 29 police station Jagdish Parasad said.

A first information report (FIR) has been filed against unknown people.