Police personnel were allegedly attacked by local residents while they were detaining an accused in a police vehicle in Kalikapur, which lies under the Chopra police station’s jurisdiction in West Bengal’s Uttar Dinajpur district on Saturday (March 1, 2025), the latest in a series of recent similar attacks.
The accused, Mujibur Rahman, fled from the police during the attack, along with the attackers. Mr. Rahman was an accused in a weapons case, according to police sources.
A larger police force then reached the spot to rescue their colleagues, and to begin a search for the main accused and the miscreants who had attacked the police. Eleven people were arrested in connection with the attack, but Mr. Rahman is still on the run.
‘No search warrant’
Meanwhile, the Trinamool Congress MLA from Chopra, Hamidul Rahman, claimed that the accused was a former member of the gram panchayat, adding that he was innocent and has no criminal cases against him.
“The police came to his house and started creating a ruckus without having a search warrant. The locals clashed with the police over this. However, I reprimanded the locals for attacking the police and said they could have instead got Mujibur out after the police had taken him to the police station,” the MLA told a local television channel. “The police attacked houses and shops belonging to local villagers. This is what the locals have told me,” Mr. Hamidul Rahman added.
The West Bengal police have not made any official statement on the incident.
Series of attacks
In January, there was a series of attacks against police personnel in the State, including in the Uttar Dinajpur district. One accused, who had opened fire on two police officers while he was being taken to a correctional home from a local court in Goalpokhar on January 15, was killed in a police encounter a few days later.
Around the same time, a sub-inspector in Murshidabad district was attacked during an arrest and the accused fled, similar to Saturday’s attack.
“It is our duty to ensure peace and security for the public. But if a criminal shoots at us, we will retaliate four times. If anyone fires at us, we are trained to deal with it very strongly,” Director General of Police Rajeev Kumar had said, following the consecutive attacks on the police earlier this year.
The Chopra area also made headlines last year when a video of a couple being flogged at a kangaroo court surfaced on the internet, leading to the arrest of the alleged perpetrator, local Trinamool Congress leader Tajmul Islam alias JCB.
Published – March 01, 2025 08:21 pm IST