A bar brawl at Hiland Park on the southeastern fringes of Kolkata snowballed into an alleged abduction with the victim suffering a bullet wound on Christmas Eve.
A man in his early-30s, who went to a pub and picked up a fight with a group of men over seating, was allegedly whisked away in a Honda City sedan after he stepped out and robbed inside the car.
He was dumped along the EM Bypass near Narendrapur with a bullet wound on his arm. The man, a building materials supplier, is in hospital.
One of the alleged attackers has been arrested, police said.
Pintu Bag, 31, a resident of Panchpota in Garia, met a friend at some bar on Saturday evening. They the decidded to spend sometime at the pub inside Metropolis Mall at Hiland Park.
“Bag and his friend picked up a fight with a group of men over seating arrangements at the pub inside Metropolis Mall. Around 10.30pm, when Bag stepped out of the pub, he was assaulted and dragged into a Honda City, waiting outside Hiland Park,” said deputy commissioner (east) Gaurav Lal.
According to the complaint, Bag was blindfolded and forced to part with his wallet and mobile phone. The wallet apparently contained Rs 20,000, the police said.
After driving him a few kilometres towards the southern fringes of Kolkata, Bag was dumped on the road near a beverage bottling plant and shot at.
“Two rounds were fired at him. One of the bullets hit him in the arm. Bag managed to flee and save himself,” an officer of the Survey Park police station said on Monday.
Around 6am on Sunday, Bag got himself admitted to a hospital at Ganguly Bagan in south Kolkata.
Cops started scanning CCTV footage and tracking the stolen mobile phone. They zeroed in on one of the gang members that had allegedly kidnapped Bag.
Police arrested Sabir Mondal alias Night King from his home in Boral on Sunday night. Bag’s elder brother, Bapi Bag, told The Telegraph that Bag was threatened that he would be killed if he shouted for help from the car.
“That is why he could not scream for help when he was being kidnapped. I later learned from my brother’s friends that the men who attacked my brother used to frequent the same bar where my brother and his friends used to go. They knew some of the boys by name,” said Bapi Bag.
Bag, who has his office at Mukundapur along EM Bypass, has been admitted to the private hospital while a search has been launched for the remaining two members of the gang.
“We have identified all the persons wanted in this case. We are looking for them,” an officer said.
A case has been drawn under sections of kidnapping, robbery, attempt to murder and common intention along with sections of the Arms Act.
The police said Mondal, who has been arrested, is also attached to the business of supplying construction materials.
“We are probing if they had any old rivalry or if this was just the outcome of an altercation that started inside the bar,” said an officer of the Survey Park police station.
