Cops suspended as Santa goes up in smoke in Chandigarh
By IANSWednesday, December 29, 2010
CHANDIGARH - Two Chandigarh Police officers were Wednesday suspended for negligence after a 35-feet-high Santa Claus was set ablaze at Sukhna Lake, police said.
The dummy, prepared by students of the Government College of Art, was almost completely damaged after some miscreants set it on fire late Tuesday.
Senior police officials Wednesday suspended police control room constables Harminder Singh and Anand Singh. Both have been transferred to the police lines.
“Both were deployed at the said place (Sukhna Lake) for the protection of the Santa Claus. They have been suspended for negligence on duty,” a police spokesman said.
The incident happened in a high-security zone of the city, just 50 metres from the Haryana governor’s house.
The Santa Claus, in its traditional red-coloured outfit, had been put up at the Sukhna Lake, the most popular tourist spot in the city, last week by the administration. The lake area attracts hundreds of visitors every day.
The authorities had claimed that the Santa Claus was the biggest one in the country.
In October, a eight-feet-tall fibre-glass replica of the 2010 New Delhi Commonwealth Games (CWG) mascot Shera was stolen from right under the nose of the Chandigarh Police, which has a police post at the lake complex, by miscreants believed to be drug addicts.
The mascot replica was found after nearly one week, dumped in Mohali town in Punjab, 10 km from here.
