No breakthrough was made by the police three days after the theft at Maharaja Ranjit Singh Panorama in which seven 18th-century daggers of the Sikh ruler’s army were stolen. These daggers were among the nine housed in a glass enclosure in the Panorama’s VIP room.
Deputy commissioner of police (DCP) Bikram Pal Singh Bhatti said they had received “some leads”. “The matter is being duly investigated,” he added.
Police officials took fingerprints of the staff while suspecting an insider’s role in the robbery. As the CCTV cameras installed there were not functional, it had not been able to gather any clue in the case so far. Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (City-II) Dr Ketan Patil said they were waiting for the fingerprint reports to come. Though several staff members had been interrogated, nothing concrete had come out so far, he added.
On Tuesday, the cops enhanced the security of the Panorama and quizzed more employees, besides taking finger prints from the spot.
According to officials of the Panorama, which is manned by guards who are ex-servicemen employed by the government, the daggers had been in Amritsar since 1977 after they were brought here from Patiala. From the Maharaja Ranjit Singh Museum, these had been shifted to the Panorama when it was opened for public in 2006. The Panorama, which is under the Amritsar municipal corporation and Punjab tourism department, is manned by three security guards and an inspector who work on rotation, one at a time. A police post is also situated close by.
The day also saw a visit from an official of the tourism department from Chandigarh, who met police officials. Raman Kumar, curator of the Panorama, said, “As of now, there is no intimation of any visit by archaeological experts, but that is likely in days to come seeing the enormity of the theft.”