The scrap dealer, who was in touch with Mumbai people, has paid Rs 60,000 to the peon and Harbhajan for stealing two heritage chairs.

It was an open auction of scrap materials in the Punjab finance and planning department building at Sector 33 when a scrap dealer saw heritage furniture lying dumped in the basement unguarded and roped in AC mechanic Harbhajan Singh as well as a peon of the department to steal the furniture around three months back.

Police have identified one of the peons out of the nine, who was involved in the heritage furniture theft, as well as the scrap dealer but are yet to make any arrest.

The scrap dealer, who was in touch with Mumbai people, has paid Rs 60,000 to the peon and Harbhajan for stealing two heritage chairs.

Sources said, “AC mechanic Harbhajan Singh also disabled CCTV cameras installed at the entrance of the building prior to stealing the heritage items from the basement of the building. So far, six chairs and three tables, which were designed by Le Corbusier and his nephew Pierre Jeanneret, were recovered from the house of Harbhajan Singh at Milakh village near Mullanpur in Mohali district. Harbhajan Singh, who is in police custody, has revealed the name of the peon and identified the picture of the scrap dealer, who had also been arrested earlier in connection with the theft of heritage furniture from the storeroom of the General Hostel in Sector 15.”

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No inventory of heritage furniture

Sources said when a police team asked the finance and planning officials to produce a detailed inventory of all heritage items, they said there was nothing of the sort though it is mandatory according to instructions issued by the UT Administration in view of the security of heritage furniture designed by Corbusier and Jeanneret.

Sources said, “One of the officers claimed that they had made the inventory but it was destroyed in the fire, which broke out in the old office of the Punjab Finance and Planning Department in Sector 17 two years ago. Later, the office was shifted to Sector 33.” Moreover, the basement, where the furniture were kept, is unguarded and open from both sides.