Koushik Dutta. (Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya)

Sergeant Koushik Dutta was nearing the end of his shift on Monday night when he faced the “toughest challenge” of his 13-year career.

A taxi driver came to the 35-year-old officer at the Gariahat crossing around 9.30pm to complain about two armed youths who were refusing to pay him a paisa after running up a huge bill. The sergeant immediately ran towards the taxi to confront the youths, one of them wielding a revolver and the other a 9mm pistol.

“What happened after that is a story I could tell my grandchildren, though I would need to wait some years to do that because my son Dipankar is only two and a half years old now,” the braveheart cop joked while narrating the sequence of events to Metro on Tuesday.

Here is his story, in his own words…

The hawkers of Gariahat had retired for the day and traffic was thinning. I was at the crossing when the taxi driver came running to me from the Ballygunge Phari approach and shouted something in Hindi. He was sweating, and fear was writ large on his face. He was pointing towards Suren Thakur Road, opposite the Gariahat AC Market.

The one sentence that I could make out was “Sa’ab dekhiye na do ladke humko kabse leke ghum rahen hain, abhi paisa manga toh banduk dikha rahen hain (Two boys who have been moving around in my taxi for a long time are now threatening me with guns instead of paying the fare).”

I ran towards the taxi, which was parked next to the Gariahat flyover. The taxi driver had told me that the duo were in the car but I found the vehicle empty. A bystander said he had seen two men run towards Suren Thakur Road. I gave chase. At this point, it occurred to me that two armed men would be more than what I could handle alone. So I called the traffic guard with my wireless set and our officer-in-charge, Sati Jiban Nath, responded promptly.

I saw the two men walking briskly and then running as I got closer. I took a left turn, and then another before hitting the main road again. That’s when I realised that the duo — one of them was a tall, heavy man and the other person lean — did not know the area well.

As I got close to the taller man (later identified as 22-year-old Rahul Yadav of Bhagalpur in Bihar), he reached for the gun tucked under his belt. I had to act fast, so I aimed a kick at his waist. He fell, and I grabbed him by the collar and snatched his gun. There were two bullets in the weapon.

By then, my senior, who is 54 years old, had caught up with the leaner of the two youths (Abhishek Singh, 22, also of Bhagalpur) and overpowered him. He was carrying a 9mm US-made pistol. We quickly got into a patrol car and reached Gariahat police station.

It was 1.30am when I finally rang the bell at my home. On seeing my wife and son, I couldn’t help but wonder what would have happened had even one of the men opened fire. But I am proud of the fact that fear did not slow me down when it really mattered.