Author: A Staff Reporter
Publication: The Telegraph
Date: August 11, 2003
URL: http://www.telegraphindia.com/1030811/asp/bengal/story_2253434.asp
Passengers of a mini bus on Diamond
Harbour Road were looted and the women among them allegedly molested at
Mograhat in South 24-Parganas.
The daring dacoity was carried out
in daylight, around 10 in the morning. The looting continued for more than
half-an-hour. But passengers said vehicles that went past their bus during
the incident did not bother to stop. Some of them even saw a mobile police
van go by. The cries of help, defying the scare of guns, did not reach
it perhaps.
No arrests were reported till late
this evening.
Police sources said a gang of 10
dacoits armed with revolvers and daggers targeted the bus, which was on
its way from Amtala to Hotor in the district.
The dacoits decamped with cash and
jewellery worth more than Rs 1 lakh, the police said. Passengers said the
men were threatened and beaten up when they tried to resist and the women
molested.
The bus was speeding past a deserted
stretch of the road near Jhinkirhat when the driver had to slam the brakes
on noticing a log blocking the way ahead of a sharp bend. As the bus screeched
to a halt, armed youths crept out of roadside shrubs and moved in.
On the night of February 6, a gang
of about 20 men had looted two buses returning from wedding receptions
at Dhantola in Nadia. The men were forced onto the roofs at gun point and
the women looted and tormented. Four minor girls were among the six women
allegedly raped that night.
The driver of one of the buses was
shot dead when he allegedly recognised one of the dacoits. A zonal CPM
leader and a panchayat member of the party were arrested in connection
with the incident.
Today, the dacoits had their faces
covered with handkerchiefs. But the passengers said they seemed to be in
their early 20s. "We could not recognise them as they were masked," said
Kalidas Mondal. The dacoits were "heavily armed", added the passenger,
still reeling with the shock.
"We were dumfounded and too terrorised
to react. They started abusing us and beat up several passengers," said
Tapan Polley, the driver.
The police, the passengers said,
arrived long after the gang had left.
Subdivisional police officer of
Diamond Harbour Mehmood Akhtar said: "As soon as I heard about the dacoity,
I asked the force to rush to the spot."
Members of the gang of Salim, a
notorious anti-social of the area who is now behind the bars, could be
involved in the incident, the police said.
"The mode of operation suggests
that Salim's right-hand man, Kalo Masood, had led the gang. We are probing
into the links," said a senior police officer.
After the news spread, Diamond Harbour
Road was blocked for more than an hour. Traffic on the busy road in the
peak hour was thrown out of gear.
