Mohali (Punjab), May 18 (IANS) The Punjab police have asked banks and big showrooms in the state’s Mohali district to install closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras in the wake of recent broad daylight heists in the neighbouring Panchkula town in Haryana state.
“Keeping in mind the increasing number of day-light robberies in Panchkula, we have directed the banks and other showroom owners here to install CCTV cameras in their premises,” Jatinder Singh Aulakh, Mohali’s Senior Superintendent of Police, told IANS Monday.

Noting the district was next to Panchkula, he said the robbers could easily enter their area after committing the robbery. “Special vigil will be kept on vehicles of outstation numbers and we would also enhance the border security and the number of police check-posts,” he added.

Panchkula town was rocked in 2009 by broad daylight robberies. Jewellery worth Rs.1.5 million was looted from PC Jewellers in January while over Rs.1 million was looted from a nationalised bank branch here in February.

On Friday only, over Rs. 1.1 million was looted from a State Bank of India (SBI) branch in Panchkula’s Sector 20 area and the police are still clueless about the robbers.

“We will try to work in better coordination with Chandigarh and Panchkula police to curb such incidents,” Aulakh said.

A senior official of Panchkula police told IANS that there was a strong probability that the same gang is behind all these robberies as the method was quite similar - coming in luxurious cars with fake numbers and being very quick at their work, taking only four to five minutes to commit the crime.

“We had arrested two accused from Yamunanagar in March who were involved in these robberies. Now on their tip-off we are expecting to make more arrests,” he added.