Three personnel attached to Ekbalpore police station in southwest Kolkata have been arrested for allegedly kidnapping and robbing a man who was on his way to the bank to deposit Rs 33 lakh, belonging to the company he works for, on Wednesday morning.
The police said two of those arrested were constables and the third was a civic volunteer.
“Constable Pravat Bera, constable Swapan Kumar Biswas, civic volunteer Toton Sheikh and three others — Sheikh Chand, Sheikh Ashraf Illahi and Akbar Hossain — have been arrested in connection with this case. They have been charged under IPC sections of robbery, wrongful restraint, kidnapping and criminal conspiracy,” deputy commissioner, Port, Zafar Ajmal Kidwai, said on Thursday.
“An amount of Rs 30 lakh has been seized from them.”
The two constables have been suspended, while the civic volunteer has been “removed from duty”, an officer at Lalbazar said.
Mohammad Arbaaz, 21, who was allegedly robbed, and his friend Gulrez Khan were travelling on a scooter.
They were allegedly stopped minutes before they could enter the bank and taken to a hotel room, where they were robbed and beaten up, the two wrote in their complaint to the police.
Arbaaz, who works at a foreign exchange firm-com travel agency on Bhukailash Road, and his friend were intercepted on Mayurbhanj Road around 10.45am, officers in the Port division of the city police said.
“The two were carrying Rs 33 lakh from the home of Arbaaz’s employer on Hussain Shah Road to deposit it in the bank. They were stopped by two men, who introduced themselves as cops. They said they needed to check the bag Arbaaz was carrying,” an officer said.
“The two took Arbaaz and Gulrez to a room at a hotel on Diamond Harbour Road, where two others — who, too, introduced themselves as cops — joined them and snatched the bag containing the money.”
Arbaaz and Gulrez were allegedly beaten up and taken to Ekbalpore police station.
“Arbaaz was so shocked that he was unable to say anything at the police station, thinking that all the cops were complicit in the crime. The robbery came to light following a complaint lodged by directors of the forex company,” the officer said.
During the investigation, it turned out that a total of six men, including three personnel attached to the police station, had carried out the kidnapping and robbery.
A similar incident of policemen trying to rob a businessman on the pretext of searching his bags was reported a few months ago at Taltala police station.
A group of men, including two cops — one posted at Cossipore police station and the other in the battalion force of the city police — were recently arrested for the kidnapping and robbery of a businessman from Taltala.