Unidentified miscreants on Saturday stole a fibre-glass replica of the Commonwealth Games (CWG) mascot 'Shera' from the high-security zone of the city, police said

Shera replica stolen in Chandigarh

Unidentified miscreants on Saturday stole a fibre-glass replica of the Commonwealth Games (CWG) mascot 'Shera' from the high-security zone of the city, police said.

The mascot was placed just 30 metres away from the Sukhna lake police post and hardly 60 metres away from the high-security Haryana Raj Bhawan (Governor house) - which has 24x7 security.

The management of the Sukhna lake complex, CITCO (Chandigarh Industrial and Tourism Development Corporation), lodged a complaint with the Chandigarh Police after 'Shera' went missing on Saturday morning.

The lake complex is itself a high-security zone as a number of VIPs live nearby or come to the area for a walk.
The theft of 'Shera' is the second one of its kind this month. Earlier, a similar fibre-glass 'Shera' was stolen from Mohali town in Punjab, about 10 km from here. However, that one was recovered after two days.u00a0u00a0

Police officers say the miscreants uprooted the replica from its pedestal. They also took away a frog-shaped dustbin lying nearby, which was later recovered near the Rock Garden complex.

Eng nearly pulled out
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A top official of Commonwealth Games England (CGE) has revealed that his team was close to pulling out of the Delhi Games, a media report said on Friday. "Every day for two weeks we had board meetings and conferences. It was close, of course it was," Dame Kelly Holmes, the president of CGE, said on Thursday.u00a0

u00a0"It was only really in the last week of coming over here that our confidence grew," Holmes was quoting as saying by The Guardian.
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"It was only when the chief minister of Delhi, Sheila Dikshit, got involved with the organisation at the last minute that CGE made the decision to go ahead. CGE was keen to take a clear position to reassure the competitors trying to prepare for the event.

"Many of them pulled out, making rash decisions That's a shame because I think a number of athletes pulled out only because of what they heard before."