Bengal youth killed by hooch mafia, one arrested

KOLKATA: Police have arrested one person in connection with the death of Sourav Chowdhury, the anti-hooch and -satta crusader who was found gruesomely murdered in Bamungachhi on Saturday. Arup Talukdar, said the cops, was an “ally” of prime accused Shyamal Karmakar, who continues to abscond.
Talukdar was produced in a special court at Barasat, which remanded him in seven days’ police custody.
The arrest was somewhat hurriedly announced by the Duttapukur cops even as the entire locality demanded justice for Sourav by ensuring Karmakar’s arrest.
Residents claimed that Talukdar’s arrest was a sham because after Sourav’s dismembered body was recovered from the railway tracks at Bamungachhi on Saturday morning, his friends, accompanied by local people, started raiding local hooch dens in search of Karmakar and his allies. It was from one of these dens that Talukdar was dragged out and handed over to the cops. Next, the group raided Karmakar’s house, where they found his wife attempting to flee. She, too, was handed over to the cops. Till late Saturday, police had said they had “detained” Talukd- ar, but changed it to “arrest” bowing to public pressure.

There was no sign of Karmakar’s arrest, though Tanmoy Roychowdhury, the SP of North 24-Parganas, promised to arrest him and his three other allies named in the FIR by Sunday night acting on clues that the investigating team has gathered so far. “We have met the victim’s parents. They had some specific allegations on what might have happened on Friday night to Sourav. We will pay attention to these allegations while investigating the case,” the SP said. Sourav’s father, Saroj Chowdhury, an employee of the Geological Survey of India, however, kept pressing for a CBI inquiry. “The local police administration is just a puppet in the hands of political leaders who are behind Shyamal,” he said. “They are protecting him and hence the police are finding it difficult to arrest him. It is not just Shyamal who should be arrested but I can give specific names of Trinamool Congress leaders of Chhoto Jagulia gram panchayat, who are behind this heinous crime.”
Sourav's parents were in a state of shock and kept repeating the name of a prominent Trinamool panchayat member who was close to Karmakar. Locals corroborated this.
State BJP president Rahul Sinha visited the family and assured them of speedy release of Sourav's body after post-mortem. He also assured them that he would keep a tab on the police investigation and ensure the arrest of the accused.
Locals said Sourav was part of a group of youths in the locality who had built up resistance against Karmakar's many hooch and satta dens and his arm-twisting techniques to extort money. They ganged up and broke some of the huts and other shady outlets, earning the wrath of Karmakar and his allies. The fight peaked about a fortnight ago when Shyamal had allegedly attacked an elderly person, and the youths threatened to file an FIR against him. Shyamal pleaded with them and dissuaded them temporarily, but later started openly brandishing arms and attacking them.
Two boys of the resistance group - brothers Debnarayan and Buddhadeb Talukdar - became his prime targets. Sourav, a close friend of the brothers, was often spotted by Karmakar when the resistance group encountered him openly. "On Friday night they came with guns and choppers to our residence but we were watching the football match at a friend's house. My father alerted us and we gathered other friends and started looking for the goons. While fleeing, they went to the lane where Sourav lived. He was walking up and down on the lane talking on his cellphone. Finding him alone, they dragged him to Bamungachhi Chowmatha, which is the centre of Karmakar's illegal activities, and started beating him. Some locals spotted them, but by the time our search team was alerted, he was dragged away somewhere else," said Debnarayan.
"We spotted Karmakar at his sister's residence on Saturday morning and informed the police. They gave him time to flee from there and we are sure by now that some Trinamool leaders have helped him cross the border either at Hasnabad or at Bongaon," said Indrajit Kundu, a neighbour.
The resistance group has now vowed to take on the criminals in a more organized manner, and locals have joined them.
Barasat MLA Chiranjit said: "Sourav's death proves that we are going through a social decadence. We need to go beyond party colours and bring about social reformation." Chhoto Jagulia's Trinamool gram panchayat member Tushar Majumdar said: "We are aware of Karmakar's misdeeds and we give credit to the boys who have built up a resistance at Bamungachhi. We urge the police to arrest him immediately."