Bikers beat up cop on Bypass

KOLKATA: The Independence Day checking at nakas took a nasty turn on Friday evening when one of the two-wheeler riders attacked a traffic seargent who was checking vehicles on the EM Bypass. The incident comes hours after a cop was nabbed for assaulting his two colleagues at Behala’s Parnasree late on Thursday night.
The cops said that the incident took place when Purnendu Narain Vivekanda Roy was on duty at the Singhibari area of EM Bypass.“Two notorious criminals – Pradip Pattanaik and Munna Pandey – were travelling in two separate bikes. When they noticed that cops were checking vehicles ahead of them, they tried to flee. However, in their haste, Patnaik hit Munna’s bike and both fell on the road. As Roy turned his attention towards them, the two accused first used obscene language and then immediately attacked the cop,” said an investigating officer.
While the other cops managed to nab Patnaik, Munna managed to flee from the spot. The police have registered a case in this regard at the Survey Park police station and a hunt for Munna has been launched.
Former cops feel that both respect and fear for the law are going down in the city. Many believe that cops toeing a particular political line and keeping quite — even after repeated attacks — is only adding to the commoner’s belief that they can get away with challenging the authority of the law-keeper.
“When ‘isolated’ incidents begin happening too many times, there is bound to be an apprehension that respect for law is going down. It is important that each incident is probed and an attempt is made to understand if there is a common thread in all of them,” said S Ramakrishnan, former ADG (CID). Ramakrishnan himself had to undergo brain surgery after he was attacked at Mohammad Ali Park while on duty as Joint CP of Kolkata Police.