Kolkata: Civic cop, driver in net for Strand Road robbery

KOLKATA: A 27-year-old Park Circus traffic guard civic volunteer and his 28-year-old contractual driver was arrested by Burrabazar police for allegedly carrying out a robbery on Strand Road on Tuesday night.
Cops claimed the two accused — civic volunteer Sk Akbar and driver Sk Jamir Mondal — had reached the scene of the crime a little before midnight in a red SUV belonging to Kolkata Police and started assaulting the driver of a pick-up van.Local shopkeepers who tried to intervene were assaulted too.
The accused left with around Rs 5,000 in cash, a silver chain, a purse, PAN card, Aadhaar card and the driving licence of the pick-up van driver. The motive, sources said, was loot.
Burrabazar police said the victim, Rajakumar Das (24) from Posta, alleged the incident took place close to the Armenian Ghat-Strand Road crossing around 11.45pm on Tuesday and continued till 12.10am on Wednesday.
“Das had parked his vehicle on Strand Road when the accused arrived in a police car. They allegedly wrongfully restrained the complainant, assaulted him, and snatched his belongings. A specific case under IPC 392 was registered at Burrabazar police station and an investigation was started,” said an officer.
“During investigation, footage from CCTV cameras installed by the traffic unit, as well as private owners, were collected and local sources were engaged. Subsequently, we used technical evidence and nabbed the two. We are questioning them and trying to make some recoveries. We are also questioning them to ascertain if they had been involved in similar cases earlier,” said an officer. Cops said they are ascertaining how a civic volunteer — not entitled to use the official vehicle — could travel beyond his traffic guard’s jurisdiction. The incident took place almost two hours after naka checking had started.
According to traffic police sources, Akbar, a resident of Bibi Bagan Lane in Entally, was one of several reformed drug addicts who were inducted in the police force under the Shuddhi programme.
The project is an effort by the narcotics cell of the detective department to rehabilitate a few chosen drug addicts after providing them with necessary training and counselling. The cops also help them find meaningful jobs whereby they can earn a livelihood and gain acceptance among their family and neighbours.
Senior traffic department officers claimed Akbar was one of the three civic volunteers inducted at Park Circus traffic guard a few months ago under this scheme. “He was visited each week by counsellors and has excelled in art painting therapy. He has been a quick learner, which made us trust him. Unfortunately, he failed to live up to the trust. But we do have multiple examples of drug addicts reforming themselves and joining several private firms too. For now, we see this case as our only aberration in the past four-five years,” said a detective department officer.