Name of senior police officer crops up

Name of a senior police officer cropped up in connection with the Shimmers Night Club incident for his alleged support to the multi-millionaire bar owner Jagjit Singh to run his business flouting all norms.

Jagjit was arrested on Sunday from Delhi and brought to Kolkata in transit remand. He was at large since the day of the incident in which two rival groups broke out in the night club that remained open till the wee hours flouting all norms.

Jagjit had been into the business of running bars and night clubs for the past one decade. During investigation, the police have come to know about a senior police officer, who is no more posted either in Bidhannagar or North 24 Parganas, who had allegedly extended support to Jagjit to flout norms and make fast money, sources said.

It is learnt that the officer was posted in North 24 Parganas since 2005. The police also came to know that he was in touch with Jagjit despite being posted outside North 24 Parganas.

It may be mentioned that bars along VIP Road had flourished in the past 15 years and Jagjit had a major role behind setting up bars one after another. Allegations were raised by local people against the bars for flouting all norms. But hardly any steps to check the menace was taken by the police against them. Many of these bars had turned into dance bars during the erstwhile Left Front regime.

It was after the change of guard in the state that the police started a major crackdown against dance bars on VIP Road following orders given by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Raids were being conducted in dance bars. But the police initially had faced trouble in taking action against the bar owners as they had spread much of their tentacles during the Left Front regime. However, repeated actions and raids against the bars on VIP Road has brought the situation under control. Meanwhile, the police arrested four persons who were allegedly involved in the brawl that took place in the night club.