The footage from a CCTV camera at Uniworld City, where a doctor couple were allegedly assaulted by guards over a payment dispute, shows the husband
being escorted by guards and a man wearing a T-shirt and trousers towards the exit of a lobby in a tower in the New Town housing complex, police said.
An officer of the Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate said they have collected footage from CCTV cameras in the ground-floor lobby of the building where the couple stay in a rented apartment on the 18th floor and from the cameras installed at the main entrance and exit.
The footage that shows the husband being escorted by guards and the man in a T-shirt and trousers was from a camera in the ground-floor lobby. “The footage is from Thursday, the day the couple said they were assaulted,” said an officer.
Biswajit Ghosh, deputy commissioner, detective department, Bidhannagar commissionerate, said: “We have scanned footage from the cameras. The footage from one of them shows the man being escorted by a group of security guards and a man in a T-shirt and trousers towards the exit of the tower where they stay. We are also trying to get footage from the parking basement area, where he said he was beaten up by guards.”
The couple on Friday lodged a police complaint against guards.
The agency that is in charge of security at the complex also lodged a complaint alleging that the husband had assaulted the lone guard posted in the ground-floor lobby of the tower where they stay.
Another officer said they have also spoken to a number of residents as well as the security-in-charge at the complex.
The doctor couple have told the police that they were harassed and prevented by guards from entering their flat on the grounds that the owner of the apartment had not paid the common area maintenance charges.
This despite them showing the guards proof of the payment of the maintenance charges by the owner.
The couple mentioned in the complaint that a guard in the ground-floor lobby had on Thursday prevented the wife from entering the lift. The guard also allegedly told her that the maid hired by the family would not be allowed to enter the building. Delivery persons, too, would not be allegedly allowed to visit the apartment.
The guard also allegedly tried to drag the wife by her arm.
The couple said the guards kicked open the front door of their 18th-floor apartment and pushed the wife to the ground before taking the husband to the basement parking lot, where he was assaulted till he passed out.
The security officer of the complex, Mohammed Saharul Islam, admitted that several guards had rushed up to the couple’s apartment and had kicked their door “in a fit of anger after their colleague told them that he had been threatened and his collar was pulled by the doctor”.
“The guards, including the three who have been suspended, rushed upstairs after their colleague told them that the doctor misbehaved with him and tore his uniform,” Islam said.
“This happened when the doctor went to confront the guard after learning that this wife had been stopped from entering the lift. We had been instructed by the residents’ welfare association to keep a tab on those who had not paid their common area maintenance charges,” Islam said.
He said the guards had been given a list of flats whose owners owe maintenance charges to the association. They were also told to remind residents of those flats — owners or tenants — about the dues and ensure that maids and delivery persons were not allowed to access the apartments.
Partha Chatterjee, president of the residents’ association at Uniworld City, said the police have already spoken to them regarding the matter.
When asked how a group of guards could break open an apartment’s door and force a resident out, he said he did not want to comment as the “matter is sub judice”.
“The cops have spoken with us and we are cooperating fully in the investigation. I will not comment on anything else,” Chatterjee told Metro.
On Monday, the couple were called to the Nepalese consulate in Calcutta as the wife is from Nepal. The husband is from Karnataka.