Panditya Road vandalism incident: One more arrested

Police arrested one more person on Tuesday in connection with the incident of vandalism in Fort Oasis housing complex on Panditya Road in South Kolkata.

Rajeev Kumar, Commissioner of police, visited the housing complex at around 10.30 pm. on Monday. He spoke to members of the Fort Oasis Owners’ Association and other residents of the housing complex.

Sources said that he assured that proper steps have been taken to ensure their security. Kumar also held a meeting with the senior police officers in Lake police station and chalked out a plan to find out the exact reason behind the attack in the housing complex.

Police said the 25-year-old Kartik Das alias Bhoja was arrested early Tuesday morning. He was allegedly involved in ransacking of cars in the housing complex.

With the arrest of Kartik, the total number of people arrested in the vandalism case went up to eight while four others including one Rajesh Chowdhury were arrested on the day of the incident on charges of putting up a road block at Hazra.

The people arrested in connection with the vandalism case were remanded in police custody while four others, who were arrested for blocking road, were remanded in judicial custody for two days on Monday.

The police are, however, planning to interrogate Rajesh after receiving information that he was involved with supply of building materials.

Police suspect that he wanted to supply building materials for construction of a high rise coming up on a plot close to Fort Oasis. But he had not been successful in supplying the building materials and it could be the reason behind instigating the attack.

Though he was initially arrested on charges of putting up a road block, the police later came to know about Rajesh and his business of supplying building materials. 

“We want to verify from Rajesh what we have come to know from some other people about him,” said a police officer adding that the investigating officers would be questioning some friends of Rajesh to get some more information about the “syndicate” of supplying building materials in the area.

Meanwhile, forensic test of the car that had hit the scooty on which the victim and two of his friends were travelling has been conducted on Tuesday.

On Monday, the police had arrested seven persons connection with the incident, following the road accident in which a 24-year-old man, Abhijit Pandey was killed.

On Sunday, three youth, including the victim, from a locality situated close to Fort Oasis complex were returning from SSKM Hospital, where one of their neighbours was admitted after suffering from dengue. The accident took place as Pandey – who was on a scooty with the other two youth – took a right turn near Paramount Nursing Home on Hazra Road and was hit by the speeding Mercedes car.

Policemen patrolling the area reached the spot and took the three to hospital with the help of local people. Pandey was declared brought dead, while his friends Mithilesh Yadav (23) and Rambarat Yadav (22) received severe injuries. The occupants of the Mercedes had fled immediately after the accident.

Police suspect that Varun Maheshwari, the son of a business man, was in the car and his friend Rebecca was behind the steering wheel. Police came to know from different sources that Rebecca forced Varun to let her drive the car.

Despite identifying the owner of the offending car, police are yet to arrest its driver and the occupants of the car, when it had hit the scooty on which the victim Pandey was travelling.

As a result, the charge of probing into the accident has been handed over to the Detective Department of the city police.