KOLKATA: In a first, a Barrackpore court has permitted a police plea to conduct test identification parade of a group of airport touts arrested last month and booked under various charges, including extortion and criminal trespass.
“It’s been a long cat-and-mouse game between the touts and us at the Kolkata airport. On most occasions they were caught, they would be slapped with petty charges. They would mostly get away owing to lack of evidence and witness. This time, we have booked them under stringent sections and emphasized on a test identification parade in front of the airport authorities, who raised the issue in an FIR last month. If identified, it let us have a stronger case against them and keep them out of the airport once and for all,” said a senior Bidhannagar commissionerate officer.
An identification parade is held on the jail premises in the presence of a judicial magistrate. The number of people in the parade need to be at least thrice the number of accused and the dummies need to resemble the accused. Those who identify the accused is not allowed to be accompanied by a cop during the process; the identification can be done from a distance.
TOI had reported last month that the Kolkata airport operator had lodged an FIR at Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport police station, seeking probe into illegal activities on the airport premises, inaction against touts being one a primary complaint. Acting on the complaint, cops said they had arrested scores of touts over the past one month and booked them for extortion, criminal trespass and criminal conspiracy. Proved guilty, offenders can be imprisoned for up to three years.
But cops said they had been trying to book the touts for stricter offences, but airport authorities had not responded to repeated pleas to participate in identification process. Cops said airport officials missed dates on 3rd, 6th and 10th of this month. “It is impossible for us to identify touts. Cops can identify them better by checking CCTV grabs,” an airport official said.
“It’s been a long cat-and-mouse game between the touts and us at the Kolkata airport. On most occasions they were caught, they would be slapped with petty charges. They would mostly get away owing to lack of evidence and witness. This time, we have booked them under stringent sections and emphasized on a test identification parade in front of the airport authorities, who raised the issue in an FIR last month. If identified, it let us have a stronger case against them and keep them out of the airport once and for all,” said a senior Bidhannagar commissionerate officer.
An identification parade is held on the jail premises in the presence of a judicial magistrate. The number of people in the parade need to be at least thrice the number of accused and the dummies need to resemble the accused. Those who identify the accused is not allowed to be accompanied by a cop during the process; the identification can be done from a distance.
TOI had reported last month that the Kolkata airport operator had lodged an FIR at Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport police station, seeking probe into illegal activities on the airport premises, inaction against touts being one a primary complaint. Acting on the complaint, cops said they had arrested scores of touts over the past one month and booked them for extortion, criminal trespass and criminal conspiracy. Proved guilty, offenders can be imprisoned for up to three years.
But cops said they had been trying to book the touts for stricter offences, but airport authorities had not responded to repeated pleas to participate in identification process. Cops said airport officials missed dates on 3rd, 6th and 10th of this month. “It is impossible for us to identify touts. Cops can identify them better by checking CCTV grabs,” an airport official said.
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