The Kanwad pilgrimage now on in full swing, the people of Haridwar district are scared as the period of the pilgrimage sees a spurt in crimes.
What happens is that the miscreants sneak into the district from outside to commit robberies and other crimes while taking full advantage of the district police remaining focused on the pilgrimage. Besides, some of such miscreants commit crimes under the garb of the Kanwadias.
However, this year, only one major crime has been committed since the pilgrimage started.
On Tuesday, a group of criminals robbed a private company employee of Rs 42 lakhs at an ICICI bank at Ranipur Mod.
last year too saw some robbers barging into the house of a couple under the garb of Kanwariyas and robbing the house while holding the couple at gunpoint. This aside, a woman was murdered too allegedly by a Kanwadia from Roorkee.
Two years earlier, some criminals had snatched Rs 3 lakh from a car of a manager of a private company that was parked outside Axis Bank near Shankar Ashram.
After analysing Tuesday’s incident at the ICICI branch, the local police have concluded that it was a pre-meditated crime. Speaking of it, SP city Mamta Vohra said, “Seven people were involved in the case.
It was done in a well-planned manner.
The person was perhaps targeted with a design as he works for a company that provides currency notes to the ATMs. The CCTV footage indicates that the miscreants are from southern India. However, we are not ruling out the possibility of the employee being himself involved in the crime. We are probing it from all angles.”
Asked whether the Kanwad season is marked with a spurt in crimes, SSP Haridwar Krishna Kumar V K said that it was true. “This period during the past few years saw a spurt in crimes.
However, only one such incident has happened so far this season.
They of course take advantage of the police remaining focused on the pilgrimage,” he added.