Bhowanipore residents unhappy with Kolkata police

KOLKATA: Sunanda Ganguly had lodged three separate police complaints fearing her death. Bhowanipore police sat on these complaints giving her assurance. In 2014, days after some bouncers allegedly “kidnapped” her and rushed her in to a mental asylum in Kalighat, the same cops had refused to register a FIR. It took the intervention of the DC to slap kidnapping cases.On the day that Bhowanipore police slapped murder charges in the Ganguly death case, area residents wondered whether some timely help from the local police could have averted this tragic turn of events.
This is not the only incident that has irked Bhowanipore residents. There have been two such incidents other than this in the recent past where the police failed to take timely action. One was following a clash near SSKM during the elections where no FIR was lodged and the other is the attack on the SFI supporter at Asutosh College. In the first case, two groups of TMC activists had clashed outside SSKM, but with no major injuries the cops completed their investigation with a simple general diary. In the other incident, an Asutosh College student, a SFI supporter, was beaten up inside the college premises by alleged TMCP members. The cops refused to lodge a FIR saying they will lodge the case only after examining CCTV footage.
In October last year, Bhawanipore police station became the site of a protest demonstration following the alleged sexual harassment and assault of a transgender rights activist and her friends, on the night of October 22. The OC of the said police station had refused to file an FIR on the night of the fateful incident, saying that it wasn’t “under their jurisdiction”.