The chance discovery of a tunnel below Red Road – one-and-a-half years after another one was discovered near the same spot – in front of the main entrance to Eastern Command Headquarters at Fort William, has rattled the Kolkata Police, which are already coping with Tuesday’s bomb scare at the Writers’ Building.
Police suspect the involvement of some members of the cable-theft gang, but they have refused to draw a final conclusion without consulting the Army. Besides, they are yet to scan the CCTV footage taken from that spot. On November 29, 2013, the first tunnel was discovered after which the Maidan police nabbed four cable thieves.
Lalbazar sources said it was around <g data-gr-id="27">4pm</g> when some passersby, all Maidan regulars, noticed earth being dumped at one point on the eastern flank of Red Road. Curious, they checked and informed the Lalbazar control room, which informed the Maidan police station. Sources said the Army, disaster management group, special branch, STF of Kolkata Police and other intelligence agencies were also informed.
The Army carried out a thorough search of the tunnel before the police sealed it. Unlike the last time, though, neither police commissioner Surajit Kar Purkayastha nor special commissioner Somen Mitra inspected the site.
Police said they are now checking the antecedents of 24-year-old Md Sahil, who was arrested in 2013 for a similar offence. Several people have been detained for questioning.
The tunnel, about 15-feet-long and 4.5-feet-wide, (with unofficial claims saying it is 6-feet-deep), starts under a thicket just behind the Red Road railings. Though the police are responsible for the security of the area, the tunnel was discovered only because of passersby, sources said.
Records show that a government telecom agency employees, along with three other utility suppliers, were the last to work in the area, laying out underground cables. It is possible that they didn’t cover up a ditch and the gang extended it into a tunnel, say police.