Kolkata: More than thousand people were arrested on Saturday night across the city during a block-raid conducted by the Kolkata Police for four hours.
Controversy cropped up, a day after the incident at Karaya in which miscreants assaulted employees of a café cum-hookah bar at around 1.30 am on Friday. It decided then that at night all the police stations and traffic guards will conduct a block-raid as well as to ensure the bars and restaurants are not flouting the norms of time. On Saturday night the raid commenced from 9 pm and was concluded at 1 am.
During the raid, 1,056 persons were arrested including 74 people against which Non Bailable Warrants (NBW) were pending. This apart 830 persons were picked up for creating nuisance and disorderly conduct. Also 49 notorious rowdies and another 42 people were rounded up as preventive measures.
In the past few weeks, senior Kolkata Police officials were getting information about a section of people mainly teenagers are flouting traffic norms at night. Though traffic cops usually conduct naka checking in some strategic points across the city, it was decided to make the police stations involved in the raid to ensure road safety at night along with maintaining law and order.
During the raid on Saturday night, 1070 bikers were prosecuted for riding without helmets. Also 638 two wheeler riders were prosecuted for triple riding.64 people including bikers and car drivers were prosecuted for rash driving whereas six persons were arrested for driving in drunken condition.