Hooch den behind Salt Lake police station

KOLKATA: The city police have been going about identifying and destroying spurious liquor dens. Yet, the Bidhannagar East police station seems least perturbed. For, one such den has been operating from shanties right behind the police station's boundary wall along the Kestopur canal. But police officers claimed they had no inkling of the matter.
A ToI inspection on Friday revealed that the den was still operating at the place.Several shanties are located there. Many outsiders enter and exit those suspiciously. When ToI asked locals who these people were, one of them said: "Please ask those standing near the shanties."
When youths standing in front of a shanty were asked whether hooch was being sold there, they shot back: "No such thing is on here." Then, they asked: "Who are you? Are you from the police? Do you have any camera with you?"
After leaving the place, some locals said such spurious liquor dens were operating on a daily basis there. Sometime later, a man was seen coming out of one such shanty with a small pouch in his hands. When asked, he said his name was Jhantu Das, a rickshaw puller of Kestopur. "I regularly buy such packets containing liquor from this place. Some women sell these packs for Rs 5 and Rs 10," he said and then scampered off.
Locals said they have seen the liquor den operating at the place for a long time. "Police never take steps to demolish these dens. It is only now that they are doing the rounds of the place. Yet, liquor is being sold to those who are regular customers," said Ramen Seal, a local. "We do not open our balcony window out of fear. Many outsiders regularly visit this place to buy hooch," said Shreyashi Majumder, a resident of Amartya Abason nearby.
Bidhannagar East police station's inspector-in-charge Madan Pal though said: "We demolished the den a week ago. No den operates now."
North 24-Parganas superintendent of police Supratim Sarkar said he had sent the SDPO after learning about the matter in the evening.