Bullet protest at police station .....Women seek action against Raiganj 'thug'

(Top) A protester at the Raiganj police station shows cartridges fired in the air by the gangster on Sunday; (below) some of the women demonstrating at the police station. (Kousik Sen) 

KOUSIK SEN, TT, Apr 17, 2018, Raiganj: Over 100 women walked into a Raiganj police station on Monday and demonstrated with spent cartridges fired in their locality by an alleged thug whom they accused of extortion, eve-teasing and intimidation.

"We are feeling scared as a criminal and his associates are constantly intimidating us and the police here are sitting idle. Every day, these anti-socials extort money, tease girls and women and anybody protesting is threatened," said Tulsi Biswas, a resident who had accompanied the women protesting the alleged police inaction against Jayanta Biswas.

Recently, some locals protested the activities of Biswas, who is also known as "Tiger" and whose cohorts have formed a "club" in the locality, Sohrai, on the town's outskirts. "This angered them (Biswas and his men) and on Sunday night, Jayanta and others fired indiscriminately in the open while mouthing abuses and threatening all of us with dire consequences. That is why we decided to visit the police station and ask for intervention," said one of the women.

The protests came in the middle of a nationwide campaign for women's safety and the outrage against the rapes in Jammu's Kathua and Uttar Pradesh's Unnao.

"They have built a room where youths from various areas gather for drinking and gambling. The club is located at the entry point of Sohrai and often, they intercept locals and demand money from them. Also, girls and women are teased. Such is the situation that women do not step out of their homes in the evening hours," said another woman.

The women carried 20-odd empty cartridges and handed over those to police officers. The cartridges, they claimed, were found in different places of Sohrai on Monday morning, a few hours after the gang fired in open and threatened them.

Such protest by women has alerted Trinamul leaders as the area comes under panchayat. "We have heard about the firing. The police should take immediate steps against these people," said Purnendu Dey, a Trinamul leader.

Police officers promised "proper vigil" in the area. "Our officers are checking the empty cartridges to determine the kind of firearms used on Sunday night," an officer said.