30 months on, no clue about missing cops

24 January 2012

biswabrata goswami
MIDNAPORE, 24 JAN: It has been nearly 30 months since two police constables posted in Junglemahal for anti-Maoist operation went missing. They are still missing and the state police has no clue whether they are dead or alive.
Kanchan Garai and Sabbir Mollah went missing on 30 July near Dharampur in the Lalgarh area while they were out patrolling. Though Maoists never directly claimed to have abducted the duo, the police are certain they were behind it. Families of two constables of the State’s Armed Police from Bankura and Burdwan districts are spending sleepless nights awaiting their return and they often communicate with the district police officials regarding this.
“Though, we are clueless about their whereabouts, we have settled arrangements by which families of the two constables are getting salaries every month,” said a senior police officer. Mr Bijitaswa Raut, secretary of the West Bengal Police Association, however, said: “More seriousness is required among the police to find out the constables who went missing from Brindabanpur on their way to Lalgarh on 30 July 2009”.
A day after the missing of the two constables, security forces had carried out search operation at Jhitka forest and were involved in a gun-battle with the rebels throughout the day. One person was arrested while the whereabouts of the two constables remained unknown. On the same day, security forces had also launched an operation following a tip-off that the constables could be somewhere in the forest near Bhulagera, a village about 10 km south of Bhimpur. But, they could not trace them there.
In January 2010, two bodies were recovered from Thangbahara in Lalgarh, but after carrying out DNA test from the blood samples of the family members of the two constables, it was established that the recovered bodies were not of the missing constables. Kanchan’s father Basudev and mother Minati and Sabbir’s brother Samad Mollah had given blood for DNA tests.
According to police, security forces had launched an operation in Lalgarh on 18 June 2009 and the two constables went missing on 30 July. A CPI-M leader Banamali Mahato had left the party out of fear of Maoist attack on him and fled from his house at Bamal in Lalgarh. Police had recovered a motorbike from near his house during a raid and the two constables were asked to bring the motorbike to the Lalgarh police station. On their way to Lalgarh, they went missing from Brindabanpur near Dharampur.
“We have interrogated every person arrested from various areas on different occasions for a clue about the sudden disappearance of the two constables. But, we have received no proper information,” said a senior police officer.