Kolkata’s killer policeman suffering from ‘acute mental depression’

Chodup Lepcha, a security personnel who killed two people in Kolkata after firing in depression? Officials said - will investigate

IANS, JUNE 10, 2022, Kolkata, June 10, 2022:  Kolkata Police's killer policemen, who began firing indiscriminately with his service rifle near the Park Circus crossing, killing one woman pillion rider before shooting himself dead, has been identified as Chodup Lepcha and was reportedly suffering from acute mental depression for quite some time.

According to Kolkata's Additional Commissioner of Police-IV, Praveen Kumar Tripathi, the Lepcha, a resident of Kalimpong in the hills of north Bengal, had ID number 17462 and was attached to the fifth battalion of the Kolkata Armed Police.

"In all probability he was suffering from acute mental depression. However, it is matter of further investigation to prove whether he fired indiscriminately and killed himself out of that depression," Tripathi told news persons.

Meanwhile, the woman, the woman pillion rider who died being hit by the bullet because of indiscriminate firing has been identified as Reema Sinha, a resident of Dasnagar in Kolkata's adjacent Howrah district. Two other persons also sustained bullet injuries and were rushed to a nearby hospital immediately. Both of them are out of danger now, confirmed Tripathi. The service gun from which Lepcha indiscriminately fired was a self- loading rifle (SLR).

Sources from the city police said that the fact that Lepcha was suffering from acute mental depression for quite some time was known to his close associates in the police force. "He had confided to some of his colleagues about his mental depression without divulging the reasons for the same," said a city police official who refused to be named.

It is learnt that Lepcha recently resumed duty after a leave, when he went to his ancestral residence at Kalimpong. He was also allotted the duty at the guard outpost outside the Bangladesh Deputy High Commission office near Park Circus recently.

However, despite this unfortunate incident, the top cops of the city police have heaved a sigh of relief on two grounds. "The first is that the Lepcha did not rush in or fire towards the office of the Bangladesh Deputy High Commission. If it had been the situation would have been really very critical from all perspectives. Secondly, because of Friday namaz, the crowd at the Park Circus crossing and the adjacent Lower Range, was lesser compared to the other days. Otherwise, the casualties could have been higher," said the city police official.

However, it is learnt that a departmental enquiry is inevitable to learn whether the officer who allotted such a highly sensitive armed duty to Lepcha near a foreign mission was aware of the mental state of the policeman.