Wednesday 16 September 2015

Another Red Road tunnel discovered


Another Red Road tunnel discovered
Secret tunnel discovered in Kolkata. (Pic courtesy ANI)
KOLKATA: The chance discovery of a tunnel below Red Road - one-and-a-half years after another one was discovered near the same spot - in front of the main entrance to Eastern Command Headquarters at Fort William, has rattled Kolkata Police that is already coping with a bomb scare at the Writers'.

Police suspect the involvement of some members of the cable-theft gang, but they have refused to draw a final conclusion without consulting the Army. They are also yet to go through the CCTV footage taken from that spot. On November 29, 2013, the first tunnel was discovered after which four cable thieves were nabbed by the Maidan police. A case in this regard has been recorded at the Maidan police station.

Lalbazar sources said it was around 4 pm when some passersby, all Maidan regulars, noticed earth being dumped at one point on the eastern flank of Red Road. Curious, they checked further and informed the Lalbazar control room which in turn informed the Maidan police station. Sources said the Army was also informed along with the disaster management group, the special branch and STF of Kolkata Police and the intelligence agencies. The Army later carried out a thorough search of the tunnel before the cops sealed it. Unlike last time, though, neither police commissioner Surajit Kar Purkayastha nor special commissioner Somen Mitra inspected the site.

Police said they are now checking the antecedents of 24-year-old Md Sahil, who had been arrested in 2013 for a similar offence, and several persons have been detained for questioning in this regard. Officers from Military Intelligence, Intelligence Bureau, Kolkata Police and other agencies are interrogating them.

The tunnel, about 15 feet long and 4.5 feet wide, (with unofficial claims saying it is 6 feet deep), starts under a thicket just behind the Red Road railings. Though Kolkata Police is responsible for the security of the area, the tunnel was discovered only because of passersby, said sources. They also claimed that the tunnel is 6 feet deep.

Records show that a government telecom agency employees along with three other utility suppliers were the last to work in the area, laying out underground cables. It is possible that they didn't cover up a ditch and the gang extended it into a tunnel, say police. "All angles are being probed. But no terror angle has been found yet. Experts from several agencies are investigating the case," said joint commissioner (HQ) Rajeev Mishra.
 
 

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