The Rabindra Sarobar area becomes unsafe after sundown. A Telegraph picture.

Three youths jumped into Rabindra Sarobar on Sunday evening after a group of criminals attacked them and tried to snatch valuables from them. Two of them managed to swim to the other end of the lake, but the third could not be traced for three hours.

Chandan Das and Babua, who live in Tollygunge, immediately went to Lake police station to lodge a complaint and ask the police to search for their friend, Bapi, also a resident of Tollygunge.

But the cops were neither interested in looking for Bapi nor in going after the snatchers. Instead, they took the duo to a nearby hospital for a medical test because they detected the smell of alcohol in their breath.

After repeated requests, the cops took down their complaint in the general diary book.

According to police, the trio were sitting on the banks of Dhakuria lake around 8pm.

“We found the smell of alcohol from the two when they came to the police station for lodging a complaint of snatching. They either entered the Lake area after consuming alcohol or were drinking on the banks,” said an officer of Lake police station.

According to the complaint lodged by Das, he and his friends were sitting near the water body for half-an-hour and were about to leave. “We noticed a group of five men approaching us. Initially, we thought they were also taking a stroll along the banks of the lake,” said Das.

Trouble began when the five youths asked Das and his friends why they were sitting there.

“We told them they had no right to question us,” he said, adding, “Our reply made them furious. They pounced on us and we realised that they were local hoodlums who wanted to rob us.”

Das said he shouted to his friends to jump into the lake. “This was the only way to save ourselves from their attack. We started swimming in the dark and could not see each other,” he said.

Bapi, who remained in neck-deep water fearing another assault by the criminals, was traced three hours after the incident and he returned home around 11.15pm, a police officer said.

A preliminary investigation revealed that local criminals were behind the attack. No one has been arrested in this connection yet.