‘Hyd cops’ pick up youth from city hotel; local police unaware, lodge kidnap FIR
Times of India | 19 April 2025
Kolkata: Two men, apparently from Hyderabad Police, on Thursday picked up a Howrah resident from a hotel on Camac Street in south Kolkata, barely 500 metres from the Shakespeare Sarani police station, and whisked him off to an undisclosed location. The local cops, who claim they were kept completely in the dark about the entire operation, have registered a kidnapping and criminal conspiracy FIR against "unknown people posing as cops" after a friend of the 28-year-old Jasbinder Singh approached them.
Telangana Police has told Kolkata officers — informally — that Singh was an accused in a fraud case, amounting to lakhs. But more than 24 hours after Singh was picked up, local cops have no idea where he is.
When cops from outside the state conduct an operation, it is usual procedure to provide a requisition to local police, along with a court-issued arrest warrant. Raids are conducted jointly. A local court is then approached for transit remand. Under certain situations, when such formalities can't be done, the detainee is taken to a local police station or a court after detention. None of this was followed in Thursday's "arrest", say Kolkata cops.
A Kolkata Police investigating officer said Singh's call details showed that he might have actually been arrested by a team from Hyderabad's Golconda PS. "However, the Hyderabad Police didn't inform us about the arrest," the officer said. "If Singh was taken to Telangana, we are yet to know if a transit remand was sought from a local court in Kolkata or in Hyderabad. There are clear provisions laid down in BNS and BNSS on how to carry out arrests outside a state police's area of jurisdiction. The local police should be intimated and an arrest memo shared. Nothing was followed in this case," he added.
Interestingly, no relative of Singh has yet contacted Kolkata Police. The friend of his who went to the cops was identified as Ajit Kumar Das, a resident of Giridih in Jharkhand.
A local police source told TOI that when they questioned hotel staff, they were informed that Singh had checked in recently, and was staying in room 418. "On Thursday morning, two men arrived at the hotel in a white car, introduced themselves as ‘cops from Hyderabad' and took away Singh," the source added.
Kolkata Police has reached out to Golconda Police via email, to which they have received a reply: "someone from Bengal" had been arrested. "Their answer was vague, and they refused to let us contact Singh directly. As a result, we have not quashed the kidnapping FIR," an officer added. The cops are also trying to establish a link between Das and Singh. "We may also send a team to Hyderabad to get more details about Singh," the officer added.
When TOI tried to contact Golconda PS, calls to SHO P Saidulu went unanswered. Detective inspector Ma Rajendra Prasad, however, said — in English — that he only spoke Telugu and could not answer any questions. "Such incidents undermine established protocols of inter-state police cooperation and could compromise the rights of the accused and his kin. It is clearly stated in the new law that the reason for arrest must be shared with the family of the accused," said lawyer Kapil Tiwary.