KOLKATA: Barely a day after an a rmed gang struck at the underconstruction New Town station on the Airport-New Garia Metro corridor and made away with construction materials worth around Rs 5.4 lakh, another similar attempt was made close to Technopolis, the IT hub, on Friday. A day later, three persons, including the driver of the pick-up truck used by the gang, were detained on Saturday but the cops called it “just the tip of an iceberg”.
The
Bidhannagar police commissionarate, which believed an organized gang was at work that targeted various Metro construction sites, said night-long raids would be carried out across Rajarhat, Madhyamgram and parts of north Kolkata in search of the other gang members.
“We have been collecting intelligence through the New Town police and the detective department and checking images of CCTVs installed in the area. We hope to round up the entire gang,” an officer said. But the police have already traced the entire stolen booty, worth Rs 5.39 lakh, from a godown at Manicktala which they sealed. “Those who made the purchase were fully aware that these were stolen goods,” said an investigating officer.
A gang of 30 men, armed with guns and choppers, barged into the underconstruction New Town Metro station opposite Eco Park’s Gate No 2 after Thursday midnight, attacked and tied one of the security guards to a pole, chased away the other and drive away with the raw materials. Officials of IL&FS Engineering and Construction Company, which is building the station, said petty thefts and attempts to steal had been a regular occurrence at the construction site, but this one was major. Now, they plan to ask the state administration for a permanent police outpost, like the one set up at the Airport-New Garia terminal station site in Sonarpur. “The police have done a good job, returning some of the stolen materials, but this will not help in the long run. One particular gang keeps turning up to loot the materials. They threaten our workers with dire consequences and take away raw materials,” Alak Kumar Pan, senior HR manager at IL&FS, told TOI on Saturday. “How can we complete the project in such a situation?” Pan said the job was done in an “extremely professional manner” with the pick-up truck used being dumped with expensive raw materials, like U-jacks, base jacks and horizontal pipes. Only a month-and-a-half ago, an armed gang assaulted the guards posted at the New Garia site, trying to loot raw materials. Labourers there had refused to resume work till the Baruipur SP put up a permanent outpost.
The New Town Metro station is coming up on the thoroughfare in the
central business district of New Town, close to the financial hub that houses several offices. Officials of RVNL, the implementing agency of the 34km Metro corridor, said they were shocked that the sites were at the mercy of local goons, whose livelihood depended on looting construction material. “Everyone should ensure the construction is completed without such trouble,” a senior RVNL official said.
