Food delivery boy held for snatching after hit-and-run

KOLKATA: A 34-year-old delivery executive for a major online platform has been arrested for snatching after cops found him involved in a hit-and-run in south Kolkata about a month ago. Cops suspect Arup Saha, riding a two-wheeler en route to deliver food, might have deliberately hit octogenarian Nandita Chatterjee — who got seriously injured after the accident — in order to snatch her gold chain.
According to the police, around 6.45pm on May 17, Nandita Chatterjee, a resident of Beltala Road, was knocked down by a motorcycle as she was walking on a bylane close to Mahendra Road while returning from a temple. The biker did not help her, but sped away after a while. She was eventually removed by local people to a private nursing home on Sarat Bose Road.
The cops went to the nursing home more than once, but failed to record her statement as she was not conscious for several days. Finally, on May 27, the Bhowanipore police managed to get her statement. “We learned from her that she was dashed by a motorcycle. We also found out that after gaining sense at the nursing home, she noticed that her gold neck chain was missing. She was sure it had been stolen by someone. Subsequently, a second case — of theft — was recorded at the Bhowanipore PS on the basis of her statement, even as we continued with the normal accident probe,” said a senior police officer.
The cops obtained relevant CCTV footage during the course of the investigation. “After prolonged and careful scrutiny, it was found that a young man wearing a helmet and riding a motorcycle had entered the bylane off Mahendra Road, where the incident occurred. Prior to the entry into the bylane, the motorcyclist was seen talking over a cellphone. Keeping this in mind, the mobile tower details of the locality was obtained and was matched with each other. After careful scrutiny, during which we matched the tower data with the CCTV time stamp, we found the number belongs to Saha, the accused,” said an investigator.
The cops fixed his address to Sahapur in New Alipore from his employers, only to learn that he was not even living there now, having shifted to Maheshtala some time back. “We failed to detect his home in Maheshtala. We, however, got information that he was an employee of an online food delivery service. All employees of the three major delivery companies, operating in south Kolkata, were brought under the scanner. After a prolonged investigation, we found that Saha was an employee of one of those three companies, and that he usually operates in restaurants on Park Street, especially those selling pizzas. Accordingly, we kept a watch and arrested him from Park Street last week.”
The cops said that Saha even admitted to the crime and said he had even sold off the chain to Sukumar Dey, a receiver of stolen articles, in Maheshtala. Dey was also arrested and the stolen neck chain was recovered. They said Saha was a first-time offender, but they were trying to find out whether he had used the same modus operandi to target others. “There are certain incidents, where his role in under the scanner,” said an officer.
Chatterjee’s family members told TOI that she was back home, but still far from full recovery. Somnath Bhattarcharya, her son-in-law who stays in Nagpur, is looking after her, having taken a long break from work.