Former security guard, aide held for car theft at housing complex

Kolkata: Two persons were arrested by the officers of New Alipore police station for allegedly stealing a car from a housing complex. After the complaint was lodged, police nabbed the two accused and recovered the stolen car within 24 hours.

According to police, on Tuesday, Sanjeev Mishra of 181, Block G, New Alipore lodged a complaint against unknown miscreants for stealing his car parked on the

housing premises.

During preliminary investigation sleuths questioned the security guard and came to know that late on Monday night, around 1:30 am, a person told him that Mishra had asked him to move the car. But the security guard said he did not know when that person entered the housing complex.

As the person had the ignition key with him, the security guard did not suspect any foul play. Immediately, the CCTV camera footage of the housing was analysed.

But, the interaction point between the suspect and the security guard was out of CCTV camera's coverage area. In the CCTV camera footage it could be seen that the car was going out but the driver of the car could not be identified.

According to sources, there is a rule in the said housing to keep a duplicate ignition key of each of the residents in a board on the ground floor in case of any emergency situation. The security guard was shown photographs of several car thieves but he could not identify anyone from the photograph.

As the security guard is the only person who had seen the accused for a few minutes, sleuths decided to draw a portrait parle on the basis of the description given by him.

The sketch was done at the scientific wing of Kolkata Police, it was shown to some security agencies among which one agency recognised the accused.

It was learnt that the person identified as Ujjal Bonu of Maheshtala had worked as a security guard at the housing complex two years ago.

Immediately, after the accused has been identified, the police conducted a raid at Bonu's place on Wednesday and nabbed him. Later, he confessed to the crime and stated that another person identified as Samiran Pakhira was keeping a watch from outside for any possible resistance. During interrogation Bonu stated that he managed to climb up the fence and got hold of the key as he knew the rules of the housing and place for keeping the car keys.

Then he managed to convince the security guard and fled with the car.

Later, the police recovered the stolen car from Bonu's possession. Pakhira was also arrested later. Both of them has been booked under sections 457 (lurking house-trespass or house-breaking by night in order to commit offence) and 380 (theft in dwelling house) of the IPC.