Salt Lake, a crime magnet for professional dacoits

CRIMINALS ON PROWL: The surrounding areas of Ultadanga, Rajarhat, Bhangur and Phoolbagan remain hotbeds of crime.

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Keywords: Salt Lake, Crime

Kolkata: The rising crime rate across metros is slowly spilling over to the suburbs and the police is finding it tough to deal with the rise.

Statistics show Salt Lake as a crime magnet for professional dacoits and criminals.

Salt lake in Kolkata has the unique mix of residents. There are the traditional Bengalis and the IT professionals who work by night and it is this mix that makes it the ideal target for criminals.

It is never too dangerous till it happens to you and this old adage came frighteningly true for the Sengupta's when burglars wiped out their house clean on a quiet afternoon in Salt Lake.

“Everything was gone save for a few clothes. We were stunned. We asked our neighbours if they knew what had happened. They said no. They told us to proceed with an FIR,” says, Resident Salt Lake, Lakshmi Sengupta.

The Senguptas are just one of many such residents living unguarded lives. Most residents now feel that the lack of pada culture (where people bond within the area they live in) makes them vulnerable targets in their singular bungalows.

For the residents of Salt Lake, it is the cosmopolitan lifestyle, these sprawling roads, the abundance of space and obvious peace and quite that make it the simple choice to settle.

However, it seems it is these very reasons that play on the minds of petty criminals and burglars who seek easy prey in the quite of an afternoon or the loneliness of an evening.

The Bidhan Nagar police have now let loose a troop of scouts on wheels that patrol the 320 kilometer stretch of roadways in the suburb to arrest crimes that go unreported.

“We have to adopt measures to check this influx of criminals. We have checked the incidents of crime to a large extent by patrolling the streets and manning the crime prone areas. This place has very affluent people so it attracts criminals looking for quick money,” says Additional SP North 24 Paraganas, Ashoke Kumar.

And even as the Senguptas find a semblance of security in their bolted doors and manned household, the surrounding areas of Ultadanga, Rajarhat, Bhangur and Phoolbagan remain hotbeds of crime.