Amit Das, whose complaint was not recorded by local police

Officers of Burtola police station asked the owner of a roadside eatery to hire a car for them to go and recover his stolen motorcycle, which the man himself had traced.

This was after the policemen had refused to lodge a complaint for seven consecutive days. They registered the complaint on the eighth day after Amit Das approached deputy commissioner (north) Pallab Kanti Ghosh but did not act on it.

Das, however, not only recovered the motorcycle on his own, but also lodged a complaint with Lalbazar’s grievance cell, that has resulted in a censure for Nirmal Kanti Ghosh, one of the officers at the police station. A probe has also been ordered into the incident.

On January 23, Das, in his late 30s, had gone with a friend to a roadside shack in Gouribari, in north Calcutta, for a drink. When he stepped out a couple of hours later, he could not find his motorcycle. It had been purchased in May 2007 in his elder brother’s name, since he as a central government employee qualified for a two-wheeler loan.

When Das went to the police station, the officer on duty allegedly accused him of faking the theft after selling off the motorcycle to pay for his drinks.

“The next day, I went again to the police station but the officers refused to listen to me. I pleaded with them to register a complaint so that I could claim the insurance money,” said Das. For the next seven days, he did the rounds of the police station, without any luck.

Left with no one to turn to, Das started looking for his vehicle on his own. Following the leads provided by residents of Gouribari and the Khanna cinema area, he traced the two-wheeler to Joynagar, in South 24-Parganas, and immediately informed the police station.

“I was asked to hire a car to take the officers there to recover the motorcycle. I arranged for a car, but the officers made me wait from noon to 4pm on February 9 and then refused to go to Joynagar, citing bad weather,” stated Das.

“Frustrated, I went to the Joynagar house. With a spare key, I started the two-wheeler and rode it back home,” he added. The trader was not willing to let the matter rest. He lodged a complaint with the grievance cell at Lalbazar. Based on it, Nirmal Kanti Ghosh was censured last month and a probe was started.

“There was some failure on the part of the police. We are finding out why such an incident occurred,” said deputy commissioner Ghosh.