A day after announcing breakthrough in the Sector 11 pharmacy cashier murder, Chandigarh Police notched a second success within twenty-four hours, arresting four men in connection with the brutal mob killing of a 31-year-old man at Mauli Jagran — taking the combined tally of arrests across the two high-profile murder cases to six.
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The action in the Mauli Jagran case was carried out by a team from police station Mauli Jagran under the supervision of senior officers of the Sub-Division North-East, police said, even as the Sector 11 case continued to dominate headlines with two accused, Sunny Mehra and Aryan Sharma, already in custody and recovering from gunshot injuries sustained in Thursday’s encounter, and a hunt still on for the third accused in that case.
THE MAULI JAGRAN KILLING
According to the police account, an FIR was registered at Police Station Mauli Jagran on the complaint of Akash, a resident of Mauli Jagran Complex, after his friend Tota Ram (31) was attacked on the night of June 14 near House No. 2501 in the complex. Tota Ram, who had gone to Mauli Jagran to meet his sister, was set upon by a mob of 10 to 15 people armed with knives, swords, sticks and other sharp-edged weapons. Police said the assailants had previous enmity with the deceased and inflicted multiple injuries on him; the complainant himself was hurt while trying to intervene. Tota Ram was rushed to Civil Hospital, Sector 6, Panchkula, where he was declared brought dead.
FOUR HELD IN TWO DAYS
Acting on the complainant’s identification, police arrested two accused — Arman Kumar alias Ashu (22), of Village Mauli Jagran, and Sameer (18 years and 9 months), of Rajiv Colony, Sector 17, Panchkula — on June 16. Both were produced in court and remanded to four days of police custody. A day later, on June 17, two more accused were arrested on the same basis: Sumit (25) and Krish alias Kishu (19), both also residents of Rajiv Colony, Sector 17, Panchkula. Police said Krish alias Kishu has a prior case registered against him at the same police station. Sumit and Krish were produced before the court and granted three days of police remand.
WEAPONS RECOVERED, ROLES EMERGING
During custodial interrogation, the accused made disclosure statements that led investigators to recover the weapons of offence: a knife at the instance of Sameer, and a darat-shaped weapon at the instance of Arman Kumar alias Ashu, both seized through separate memos as per procedure. Other incriminating articles linked to the crime were also recovered, which police said would help corroborate evidence already gathered. Preliminary investigation indicates the attack stemmed from prior enmity between the two sides, with Arman Kumar alias Ashu allegedly using a sharp-edged weapon on the deceased and Sameer allegedly inflicting injuries with a knife. The precise role of each accused and the full sequence of events are still being examined, and police said efforts are continuing to trace the remaining absconding members of the mob and identify other associates involved.
TWIN SUCCESS, ONE MESSAGE
Taken together, the two cases — the contract-style daylight shooting of a pharmacy cashier in Sector 11 and the mob-style knife-and-sword killing in Mauli Jagran — represent very different forms of urban violence, one allegedly linked to organised extortion networks and the other to personal enmity, but both resolved through sustained investigation within days of occurring. Police reiterated that they remain committed to prompt and effective action against those involved in heinous crimes and to maintaining peace and law and order in the city, a point underlined by Chandigarh DGP Dr Sagar Preet Hooda, who has stressed since the Sector 11 killing that the force is operating under heightened alert and that no perpetrator of violent crime in the city will escape the law.
