Pooja Sharma murder: Golf Course Extension Road posing obstacles to identification of murderers

gurugram: For over thirty-nine hours, 26-year-old Pooja Sharma fought for her life at a private super-specialty hospital in Gurugram after being shot in the head on the night of November 3. Two days later she succumbed to her injuries. The three unidentified assailants who reportedly shot at the car that led to Pooja's death are yet to be arrested as cops continue work on identifying them.

Nearly a year ago, Pooja had moved to Gurugram to work at a software company here from Chhattisgarh. Earning well, there are reports that she was about to get married in the coming months. Her tragic death and the crime that led to it was unfortunately not a one-off at Golf Course Extension Road.

One of the city's pricy areas owing to several upcoming residential and commercial sectors, Golf Course Extension also is a major link to Golf Course Road and Golf Course Extension Road. Despite its prominence, the Golf Course Extension is a major hot spot for criminal gangs where crimes like carjacking are common.

In 2018 a woman was gangraped in front of her husband at Golf Course Extension Road by a gang of robbers.

Among several flaws that make Golf Course Extension one of the unsafe spots in the city includes inadequate CCTV cameras and large parts of the nine-kilometre road being unlit. These major flaws have now resulted in Gurugram Police's struggle to identify Pooja's murderers.

According to sources in Gurugram Police, investigators are finding it hard to identify the murders as the crime was committed in an area where there were no streetlights. In the images that have been captured from over 34 CCTV cameras, law enforcement officials have only been able to find out that there were three assailants.

Meanwhile, as the probe continues, Pooja's body was handed to her relatives after conducting the post mortem on November 6.

"No one wants to venture at the Golf Course Extension Road after 8:00 pm as there is always a fear of you becoming a victim of a crime by dangerous gangs over here. The fear remains despite the fact the Golf Course Extension is one of the prime areas," said Rakesh Mathur, resident of Sector-56 Gurugram.