Hooghly cop who suffered ‘deep’ bullet injury in Howrah stable but 'too traumatised'
Telegraph | 22 February 2025
The inspector in charge of a police station in Hooghly was found with a bullet injury on his left arm in Howrah’s Ghoshpara in Shibpur close to midnight on Wednesday.
The officer has been identified as Jayanta Pal, the inspector in charge of Chanditala police station in Hooghly.
CCTV footage with the police shows Pal walking towards a stationary car adjacent to a petrol pump on Netaji Subhas Road. He slumps on the road after reaching the car. Two eyewitnesses walk towards him and bend over.
There were three people, including a woman, in the car he was walking towards, police from Howrah probing the incident said.
Pal was admitted to a private hospital on Andul Road in Howrah with a deep bullet injury on his left arm, the police said.
On Thursday evening, doctors told the police that Pal’s condition was stable but he was “too traumatised” to recollect the incidents leading to the injury.
The bullet pierced his hand, doctors said.
Senior officers of the Howrah police commissionerate said they would interrogate Pal after doctors said he was ready to talk.
The police have found blood stains in a lane opposite the spot where the car was parked on Netaji Subhas Road.
Investigators said Pal was possibly shot in the lane and walked up to the car before he fell. Bystanders came to his rescue and took him to the private hospital.
Cops have recovered the shell of a fired cartridge from the spot that had blood stains.
A preliminary investigation by the Howrah police commissionerate revealed that the bullet was fired following a tiff among those in the car. The woman had blood stains on her body, more than one officer said.
It is still not clear how Pal suffered the bullet injury and whether it was fired from his service revolver or not.
The car, which had a “police” sticker pasted on a removable plate, has been seized and the police are scanning CCTV footage to reconstruct the incident.
“We have identified the woman accompanying Pal on Wednesday night. We will verify whatever we get to know from her about the incident,” said a senior officer of the Howrah police commissionerate.
The Hooghly rural police have also started a separate probe to determine whether Pal had followed the mandatory steps before leaving his posting district to visit another and what was so pressing that he had to rush to the adjoining district in Howrah.
“A three-member team, including the additional superintendent of police, the sub-divisional police officer and the circle inspector of Chanditala, has been set up to probe into the incident,” Krishanu Roy, additional superintendent of police, told The Telegraph.
Senior officers said before leaving the police station for a trip outside the district of posting, an officer must make an official entry in the police diary book. Be it on leave or on an official assignment, superiors must be informed about the concerned officer’s movements, they said.
Cops probing the incident said they were trying to find out if the woman was acquainted with the officer and whether the two had gone shopping in Howrah on Wednesday.
“It could be that the officer had visited this part of Howrah before. The car that was brought is not a police vehicle. Certain details are yet to emerge,” the officer of the Howrah police commissionerate said. “We will speak to the officer once the doctor gives us the go ahead.”