NH 34 robberies worry police

Statesman News Service

MALDA, May 25: Malda Police are worried about the increasing number of bus robbery cases on NH-34. Last night, an express bus of the South Bengal State Transport Corporation (SBSTC) was looted by a six-member group of robbers in the Gazole police station area. The place where the incident took place was merely 500 metres away from a police check post, the Malda SP, Mr DK Mondal, said. Another group of robbers looted an NBSTC bus in the same police station area last Saturday. In both the cases, robbers boarded the buses as passengers from Rathbari and Mangalbari areas in English Bazaar, the head quarter of the district. Robbers who committed the crime yesterday was a new gang from outside and they conducted operation in side the bus without arms and looted Rs 8,000 and a few cell phones from the passengers, the SP said. Interestingly, the robbers are using taxi to stop the busses to prove them as passenger for boarding the bus midway where police patrolling is not sufficient, sources said. “We are trying to spot the taxi which was following the bus during operation,” the SP disclosed. “We could not arrest the robbers yet ,” said Mr D K Mondal, the Malda SP. Mr Mondal said that the number of bus robberies in Malda was higher than other districts. He also disclosed that two highway robberies occurred in Kaliachak area a few weeks ago. “Though we had intercepted one person, we did not get effective results.“We got the breakthrough by arresting a gang that committed the highway crime in Malda’s Baishnabnagar police station area,” the SP said. Along NH-34, between Farakka to Gazole, there are more than five police check posts under the supervision of five police stations but between the gaps of two check posts the robbers are committing crimes where police are helpless.