At least five men allegedly broke into the ground floor of a house in Salt Lake’s AH Block in northeast Kolkata early on Tuesday and one of them was almost caught but he bit his way out of the police grip.
The cops reached the spot within 10 minutes of receiving an alert from a neighbour but as they tried to nab the men while they were coming out of AH 193, one of them allegedly bit a constable’s hand and another slammed an iron gate with sharp ends on the sub-inspector leading the police team.
The break-in occurred around 4am. Several residents told this newspaper that the men had covered their faces with mufflers and caps in such a way that only their eyes were visible.
The men, who the residents said were carrying rods and what looked like handguns, managed to enter a room on the ground floor of AH 193 and picked up a laptop and a cellphone.
Sumit Goswami, a director of an IT firm who stays right opposite the two-storey house, called the cops after being alerted by son Sujoy, an engineering student, who was up late studying.
Before escaping, the men dropped the laptop and the cellphone as well as iron rods and chisels they had brought with them.
Pranabesh Jana, 75, a retired teacher of BE College, Shibpur, owns AH 193 and lives with his wife on the first floor of the house. He said they had let out the ground floor, where an accounting firm runs an office.
“Two employees of the office had stayed back…. Before the burglars could climb up to the first floor, my neighbours called up the police,” Jana said.
Goswami said his son told him that he had been hearing voices of men since 3.45am.
“Some men had entered our house as well. They had shone a torch into my son's room and he spotted it. He also saw some men were breaking into the opposite house. He asked me not to panic and told me to call the police immediately,” said Goswami, who also filmed the incident on his cellphone.
He said he spotted two well-built men, their faces covered with mufflers, rush out of the house after cops reached the spot. “One of the men bit a policeman and fled. Another slammed the iron gate of the fence on the officer and managed to run away,” said Goswami.
Nilima Bhuinya, a resident of AH 195, said something like this had never happened in the locality. “We are scared as the men might return and vent their ire on us…. Something like this has never happened before,” said Bhuinya.
The police failed to track down any of the men till late on Tuesday.
“On receiving information from residents, our personnel rushed there and tried to apprehend them. While they could recover the laptop and mobile, two men managed to escape. During the scuffle one constable was bitten on the hand. Raids are on to apprehend the two,” said Surya Prasad Yadav, deputy commissioner, headquarters, Bidhannagar City Police.