Alert policemen foil robbery attempt in Salt Lake locality

Police arrested two robbers from the AE block of Salt Lake on Saturday night, while they were attempting to barge into a house in the locality. A patrolling jeep of the Bidhannagar North police 

station witnessed that five people with arms had assembled at AE block.

The police caught them red-handed and apprehended two of the culprits on the spot; however, the other three managed to flee. “[The two culprits] were produced before the court. They had assembled for the purpose of robbery, but our police team foiled their attempt,” said a senior police officer.

Police have learnt that the robbers came from areas nearby AE block, and had good knowledge of the locality. “They were planning to loot three house of the AE Block,” said an investigating officer of the case.

The police have recovered one shot gun and two rounds of bullets from the dacoits. “There may be some more weapons with the culprits who managed to flee the spot,” said the officer.

The arrested robbers – Sanjib Adhikari and Kajer Sheikh – were thoroughly grilled by the investigators. “They might be connected with some other gruesome robberies in the township. For now, we are checking all the previous records of robberies to ascertain further information,” the officer added.

It may be mentioned here that in an earlier daring robbery at CE Block in Salt Lake on a Friday in last June, a gang of eight men looted a businessman’s home at gunpoint and fled with cash and jewellery.

During investigation of that case, police came to know that the gang had been watching over the residents’ daily movements for quite some time without being spotted. This act would have been tougher in other parts of Kolkata, which normally have a strong para culture.

Acts of robbery have increased of late in Salt Lake and have become a cause of concern for its residents.

Contrary to a para, or a community-based, culture, people in Salt Lake don’t interact much with each other. This apparent aloofness has made it easy for miscreants to stalk and/or track movements of different families.

There have been some incidents where masked miscreants have caught women alone in their  houses and threatened them with machetes to their throat. Some more miscreants then enter the home to loot the valuables.

“The families were either watching television or were away when the gang barged in and threatened the residents with arms. They were in a scary situation and could not even react to call the police,” said the officer discussing the modus operandi of such cases.