Police station ransacked after 2 held for drinking

At least seven personnel were injured when 20-30 locals barged into a police station in south Kolkata and ransacked it after two persons were arrested for drinking in the open, police said on Monday.

The incident happened on Sunday night when residents near Menoka cinema in Southern Avenue called up the Tollygunge police station, complaining about some unknown youths drinking liquor in the open and creating disturbances there, a senior Kolkata Police officer said.

Two of the accused were arrested, following which their family members, mostly women, from nearby Chetla area ramped into the police station to free the accused, the officer said.

"Instead of dealing with the matter strictly, the officer-in-charge of the police station let the duo go and only booked them under charges of disorderly conduct," the officer said.

However, the two returned to the police station with more people and "attacked" the personnel there, the officer said.

According to the police, the accused started pelting stones at the police station and the officer-in-charge's room was also ransacked. At least seven police personnel, including women, were injured in the attack.

After city police chief Anuj Sharma vented out his dissatisfaction about the role of the officer-in-charge, the anti-rowdy section has started a search for the culprits, officers at the Kolkata Police's headquarters in Lalbazar said.

The police have lodged a suo motu case into the matter and no one has been arrested yet, a senior officer said.

"We are checking the CCTV footage and some of the miscreants have been identified as residents of Chetla," the officer said. "They are on the run and we have launched a search for them.