The officer in charge (OC) of the Pragati Maidan police station, Indraneel Chaudhuri, was made a scapegoat in the Dhapa death case and was removed from his post on Saturday. He has been sent to the traffic department at Lalbazar, the city police headquarters, as a punishment posting.
The top brass of the Kolkata police, however, was yet to find a replacement for Mr Chaudhuri.
Additional OC D. Chakraborty of Pragati Maidan has been asked to take charge as the OC.
His seniors took the decision to remove Mr Chaudhuri because of his late response to rush to the trouble spot at Mathpukur on March 22 when the clash took place in which Trinamul Congress activist Adhir Maity was killed.
Kolkata police top rung felt that had Mr Chaudhuri reached Mathpukur in time, the main accused, Trinamul Congress councillor Shambhunath Kow, could not have escaped. Significantly, immediately after the incident, chief minister Mamata Banerjee had ordered the arrest of Mr Kow, who has since gone into hiding. But Mr Chowdhury’s colleagues pointed out an OC who was an inspector-rank officer would not dare to arrest a ruling party councillor especially after the Garden Reach mayhem in which police commissioner Ranjit Kumar Pachnanda was removed for his prompt initiative to nab local Trinamul councillor Mohammed Iqbal.
Meanwhile, another accused, Kana Bikash, in Maity death case, was arrested.
With his arrest the total number of culprits arrested so far has become two.
Following a tip-off a police team raided former councillor Ratan Dey’s house at Jodhpur Park in search of Mr Kow.