Residents worry in area known for unrest, mayor doubts city police intelligence
Telegraph | 17 November 2024
The city’s mayor on Saturday doubted Calcutta’s police’s intelligence gathering and questioned how arms and criminals from “outside the state” were making their way into the city.
The comments came in the wake of a murder bid on a Trinamul Congress councillor in a burgeoning and bustling pocket of south Calcutta.
Firhad Hakim, Calcutta’s mayor and a senior minister in the state cabinet, wondered how despite chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s warnings, firearms were easy to find in Bengal. He urged police to “act now”.
Sushanta Ghosh, the councillor of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation’s Ward 108, was chatting with two acquaintances outside his home near Acropolis Mall in Kasba when a man wearing a helmet came riding pillion on a scooter, got off and tried to shoot him. The gun did not work and Ghosh escaped.
“Enough is enough. I want to tell the police, act now,” Hakim told a news conference at the KMC headquarters on Saturday.
“Where is the intelligence? Where is the network? How are criminals from outside entering?” Hakim asked.
The mayor said just like it was his responsibility to act if there was any deficiency in civic services, the police must act against criminals.
“I will not go and ask you how to prevent waterlogging. Please act,” he said.
“How can arms enter the state even after the chief minister’s warning? I hear that arms are coming from Munger. If so, then steps must be taken. If there is waterlogging or a lack of potable water, I have to take steps. Similarly, the police have to act if arms are coming in from outside,” he said.
The mayor added: “I see that people from other states are committing crimes. It was the same in Barrackpore, it is the same in case of Sushanta Ghosh. It is not Firhad Hakim’s job or Sushanta Ghosh’s job to stop criminals. That is the job of the police. I am telling the police clearly to stop this.”
Such a scathing attack on the police from a senior member of the state’s ruling party has been rare.
If the mayor was concerned, ordinary Calcuttans were much more worried at the downward spiral of the city’s law and order.
Responding to Hakim’s comments, a senior Kolkata Police officer said that the police were acting, “which is why the police commissioner went to the spot on Saturday”.
“We arrested the key accused within a day from Burdwan,” the officer said.
The murder bid on Ghosh shocked Calcuttans, familiar with area because of a popular mall, several schools and popular restaurants.
The road where Ghosh’s house is located is on the way to Garden High School.
Not far is the high school section of Delhi Public School Ruby Park and a little further is the visa office and the GST Bhavan.
A resident of the area told Metro on Saturday that incidents of snatching mobile phones or gold chains have been reported in the neighbourhood in the five years he has been living there. “An incident of snatching happened just before Puja. But there has never been something so shocking. I often walk alone on this stretch. My wife, too,” said the man in his 60s.
Ghosh, now councillor of Ward 108, was earlier the councillor of neighbouring Ward 107.
A lingering contest for control between two councillors has also triggered frequent unrest in this pocket of Calcutta, where real estate has shown enormous promise and old standalone buildings are quickly giving way to plush projects. New people means new business and a keener tussle for the spoils.
Clashes between supporters of Ghosh and the councillor of Ward 107, Lipika Manna, are well-known to residents of the area as well as in the KMC corridors.
“Ghosh had proposed Manna’s name to the party when Ward 107 became reserved for women candidates during the KMC elections in 2022. Later, the two fell out,” said a senior Trinamul leader.
Ghosh was the councillor of Ward 107 between 2010 and 2020. He was also the mayoral council member (roads) between 2013 and 2015. He was not made a mayoral council member in the later terms. In 2022, he was made the chairperson of Borough XII.
Sources in the party said a large number of vacant plots in Wards 107 and 108, parts of them along EM Bypass, make any land deal very lucrative. It is not clear if the bid on Ghosh’s life was the result of such a feud.
Ghosh told Metro he had no idea about who would want to kill him and why. “I have no idea. Let the police probe,” he said.
During the 2021 Assembly elections, Ghosh camped in Nandigram for nearly one-and-a-half months as chief minister Mamata Banerjee fought the elections from Nandigram. “I was her counting agent,” Ghosh said. Mamata lost the seat to Suvendu Adhikari, a former Trinamul MLA now in the BJP.
Sources in the Trinamul said Ghosh was also hit by a bullet during the July 21 firing in 1993. “He was in hospital for more than a month,” said the Trinamul leader.