The brutal rape and murder of a young doctor at one of Calcutta’s oldest teaching hospitals has thrown the spotlight on civic volunteers, an informal system of policing introduced by Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee over a decade ago.

The CM has set a target of recruiting 1,30,000 civic volunteers, according to the chief minister’s office’s website. Till date 1,19,916 volunteers have been recruited. One of them is Sanjay Roy, 35, who was posted at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital as a guard. He has been arrested for the crime that has shaken Calcutta and enraged doctors across India.

Since Roy's arrest, details are emerging on the kind of privilege he enjoyed. He lived in the barracks of the Calcutta Police’s 4th battalion and used a motorbike marked ‘police’.

Over the years, the civic volunteers have been drawn from the vast numbers of unemployed youths in the state without much of an education that could help them get better paying jobs.

They are paid barely Rs 9,000 per month in a job-starved state where the number of job seekers last year was 77.6 lakh.

The civic volunteers were initially recruited to help police control traffic and be general "do-gooders". Over time, they were co-opted to run a parallel law and order management system, granting them proximity to the ruling party which brings its benefits and perks.

Critics of the civic volunteer system say they are untrained in law, policing and human rights and just have to keep the local Trinamul "dada" happy to keep the job and have the contract renewed.

“The civic volunteers are recruited only on the basis of their proximity to the party,” said Dipak Burman, BJP legislator from Falakata in North Bengal. “Most of the inspectors-in-charge and sub-inspectors move around with three to five civic police these days.

“Their jobs are to run personal errands for the cops, extort money on their behalf, run surveillance on Opposition politicians. And whenever Mamata Banerjee addresses a public meeting or attends a government programme in the districts, they discard the uniform and turn up as Trinamul supporters to fill the venue cheering loudly.”

The government website dedicated to civic police volunteers says they are supposed to be deployed as traffic guards and at police stations.

The duties assigned to them include assisting the police in management of traffic during major festivals, assist police in “official work”, removal of unauthorised parking, public safety and any other duties that the respective unit heads assign the civic police volunteer.

Sanjay Roy’s status as a civic volunteer granted him access to any part of RG Kar Hospital at any time. No questions asked.

CPM leader Sujan Chakraborty said the entire process was illegal.

“There are no written tests, there are no interviews. Who decides who is fit to be a civic volunteer? The ruling party provides a list and the recruitments take place,” said Chakraborty. “A large section of the so-called civic volunteers are involved in criminal activities.

“The situation is such that the civic police are controlling the police because of their proximity to the political bosses. The policing system has been completely destroyed,” he claimed.

Calcutta police commissioner Vineet Goyal, while addressing a news conference following the arrest of Roy, was asked whether the accused was a civic volunteer. He did not answer.

The government website states that civic volunteers should have cleared Madhyamik-level exam (the rule was later tweaked and the educational qualification level brought down to class VIII), have represented school or a club at any sports, be medically fit and without any criminal record.

They have to undergo a 10-day training session at police lines and a refresher course once a month.

Sanjay Roy had a complaint of domestic violence filed against him, but was never arrested.

When a civic volunteer’s name came up in connection with the murder of student-activist Anis Khan in 2022, then advocate-general Gopal Mukhopadhyay had said the recruitment of civic volunteers should be banned. Later, Mukhopadhyay described it as his “personal opinion”.

More recently, just about 10 days ago, a civic volunteer was arrested for duping a toto-driver of Rs 11,370 on the promise of a job in Nadia’s Krishnagar.

In Calcutta the civic volunteers have set rates. For example, anyone who goes to the at Lake Kali Bari for a special prayer on the purchase of a new vehicle has to pay Rs 100; it’s Rs 50 if it’s second-hand. The going rate for a U-turn on DL Khan road towards the police training school is between Rs 20 and Rs 50, depending on the time of the day.

Social worker Vineet Ruia recounted how more than five years ago on March 5, he had caught a man clad in a green dress collecting Rs 10 from every vehicle entering a no-entry road.

“When I asked him why he was collecting money and allowing illegal entry of vehicles, he ran away. I chased him and caught him standing next to a cop in white uniform. When I asked the same question to this cop, he got angry and threatened to have me arrested. The situation was resolved after two senior sergeants intervened,” said Ruia.

A video of the incident that happened at the Brabourne road that he had posted on the Kolkata Traffic Police Facebook page was deleted, Ruia claimed.

The civic volunteers’ uniform has changed to blue since then.

CPM leader Chakraborty said the time had come to delink the civic volunteers from the police. “If they are civic and volunteers, why are they paid from the state home department, why do they roam with the cops? It is time to delink the civic volunteers from the police – if the state’s law and order has to be protected.”