4th arrest in lynching case, Lalbazar reviews incident

KOLKATA: At a time when

Maniktala

police are claiming that the alleged lynching of Ratan Karmakar (47) at Muraripukur last Wednesday is not a “classical case” where there was mob fury against an unidentified man entering their neighbourhood, Lalbazar is not ready to take any chance. The top brass is taking stock of the incident and identifying areas which can be strengthened to stop a repeat of the incident. On Monday, the fourth accused Dipendu was nabbed by the cops. This leaves just one of the main accused — Deep Sarkar — out of police

radar

.


“A post-mortem is not to blame anyone. It is only to sharpen our reaction time in the immediate future,” said an

officer, adding a chargesheet will be filed against the accused as soon as possible to “send across a strong message”.

Analysing the incident, police said that three things made it difficult for cops to take action after identifying the crime. “One, the victim was known to the accused and he had willingly travelled with them to the Muraripukur club. Two, the accused had shut the door while committing the crime and locked it up after they realized Karmakar was dead. Three, only a few people were involved and the reason, most likely, was settlement of finances rather than a direct theft,” explained an eastern suburban division officer.

However, a section of officers felt that with an elaborate arrangement made even before the victim was confined to the club room and finally assaulted, the hectic activity should have been noticed. “The clubs are now at the nerve centre of activities in the neighbourhood. It seems we could not penetrate all such clubs,” said a police source, adding even the cries of help from Karmakar had gone unheard.

Policemen will now increase their visibility in the area apart from using mikes and distributing leaflets to stop rumour-mongering. The cops will also visit clubs in slums and hold meetings. “The interactions will help us connect with the club members and dwellers and also ascertain if any anti-social is fuelling rumours,” said an officer from south division. Sources at Lalbazar insisted that visibility creates a fear factor among rumour mongers and instil confidence in people to report developments.

Some of the police stations with large number of slums —

Tollygunge

, Kasba, Phoolbagan and

Anandapur

— have witnessed maximum cases of near-lynching in the city in the past four months. “Senior IPS officers have been asked to make deployments if there is any hint of trouble at any spot,” said an officer at Lalbazar.