Kolkata police mole turns into a don

KOLKATA: A police informer is turning into a don by using his 'immunity' to gang up with some notorious criminals in the northern fringes of the city. Police fear that the growing clout of Amit Sinha could change the equation in the underworld and pose a tough challenge to law enforcers. Amit, who the underworld calls 'Ramua', hails from New Alipore area of south Kolkata. He started as a small-time criminal but later turned into police mole. Nurtured by a former senior officer of the Special Task Force (STF), Kolkata Police's counter-terror force, Ramua is now a trusted informer of some police agencies. Ramua is suspected to be behind the murder bid on a Trinamool Congress leader in Dum Dum last Thursday.Officers posted in various police stations of Barrackpore and Bidhannagar have specific evidence that Ramua has started to rope in some notorious bad heads of the area in the past few months. The list includes Shankar Ram alias Lyangra Shankar - a dreaded gangster active in the airport area and his close associate Raja Dutta, a professional killer accused in the double murder of businessman Suptendu Dutta and his driver Sushanto Ghoshal. On September 10, 2011, Chinsurah-based businessman Suptendu, who owns two management-cum-IT colleges at Salt Lake and Siliguri, and his driver were found murdered inside their car on Belghoria Expressway. Police suspected Raja was hired for the double murder. He was arrested from Barasat in a narcotics case but investigators could not find anything to nail him for the murders. He got bail last Tuesday.A BCom dropout, Raja was a protege of Lyangra Shankar and is now playing a key role with Ramua to form a new crime syndicate, say police. Underworld sources confirm this. They say that Jaggu, the brother of slain Dum Dum Trinamool leader Manoj Sahni, has also joined Raja.Sahni, who was accused in a murder in the airport area, was gunned down in October 2011 due to a building-materials supply rivalry, say police. Sahni's old associates are eager to win back their domain and more than 35 dreaded toughs have already joined the Ramua-Raja gang and another notorious contract killer Babusona. Apu Singh, one of the key suspects in last Thursday's murder attempt on Trinamool youth leader Sibu Mazumdar, is an associate of Sahni's brother Jaggu. The bullet narrowly missed Mazumdar and he managed to identify some of the attackers. Apu is said to have led the hit squad. He and three others have been arrested,Police in Dum Dum, Belghoria and the airport area are concerned by the emergence of this new gang. Three more big guns of the underworld are closely watching the change. Ruis Mondal, a dreaded gangster in the New Town area, is likely to walk out of jail soon. Underworld sources say he is close to Ramua. His erstwhile mentor turned rival Gour Mondal and the city underworld's big brother Seikh Binod are keeping their eyes on Ramua. Binod is said to be desperately collecting information on the new developments from jail."Ramua and some of his aides have already started extorting people but his immunity as an informer of some elite investigating agencies stops us from throwing him behind the bars," said an officer of Barrackpore. His counterparts in Kolkata Police agree. The police agencies that use Ramua, however, say they have no clue about such developments. "We will inquire into this. If he is misusing his police contacts, we will definitely take action," said an officer.