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The most recent one occurred last evening, when four dacoits broke into a house and escaped with jewellery and cash worth Rs 2 lakh. The house of promoter Pranab Dey was robbed while he was out on work.
The robbers tied up his wife and severely beat Dey’s physically challenged son before escaping. Even the Dey’s domestic help was not present when the robbery occurred, as she was out buying fruits for Saraswati Puja.
The area has become a favourite with robbers and thieves who have burgled several houses in the locality in recent months.
On January 2, three young men broke into a flat at Salt Lake’s Purbachal Housing Estate in broad daylight and held the residents at gunpoint. They ransacked the flat for half-an-hour, before fleeing in a taxi with the heist.
Similarly, on January 23, a gang of robbers targeted Aparna Basu’s (72) house in Bidhannagar East and ransacked it. Armed with sharp weapons, they broke into her house in the middle of the night and tied up Basu and her domestic help Sabita Ghosh. They escaped with Rs 1,500 and some important documents.
A few days later, on February 5, a gang of burglars entered into a house in the posh township early in the morning and fled with cash and jewellery worth over Rs 20 lakh.
While these incidents have made the residents in the area frightened and insecure, the police as always are claiming that they are doing their best to tackle the menace. “We are trying our best. We have a single patrol van for the entire area and two more will be inducted soon. Moreover, we are putting more men on duty in various blocks. A few were also detained in connection with the robberies and interrogation is on. Raids are also being conducted at areas around Salt Lake such as Baguiati, Lake Town and others,” said Supratim Sarkar, Superintendent of Police, North 24 Parganas.
Local residents alleged that a number of concrete footbridges over the Kestopur canal remain virtually unmanned and miscreants from other areas use them to enter the Salt Lake area. “Its easy for the miscreants to cross the canal, rob a house and then flee to the other side of the canal,” said Tapu Saha, a resident of GD Block in Salt Lake.
While some residents have demanded increased police patrolling in the area, others believe that after the practice of community policing was discontinued, there has been increase incidents of robberies. “During the tenure of Praveen Kumar as SP, the incidents of robberies and petty crimes in the area had gone down owing to community policing. Regular meetings were held between residents. But with the arrival of the new SP, Supratim Sarkar, that practice has been stopped,” said the councillor of Bidhannagar Municipality’s ward number 5, Ashesh Mukherjee.
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