Five Durga puja organisers on Saturday lodged police complaints against a decorator from Calcutta who had allegedly fled after taking advance amounts from them for constructing pandals

Police registered a case against Sudipta Pal, a resident of Dhakuria under the jurisdiction of Gariahat police station in Calcutta.

Baluchar Kalyan Samity, Dilip Smriti Sangha, Krishnakalital Kalyan Samity, Beltala Club and Himalaya Sangha signed an agreement with Pal for constructing their Durga Puja pandals this year.

According to the Puja organisers, they had altogether paid more than ₹20 lakh in advance to Pal.

"Ours is a big-budget Puja. We are one of the crowd pullers during Durga Puja. Pal assured us of completing the pandal construction on time. Initially, he had engaged some labourers from Calcutta. However, they are not working anymore. Recently, he engaged some local labourers for the pandal construction. Pal was supervising the process, staying in a hotel in Malda. But recently, the construction process has become very slow. The local labourers told us that they were not being regularly paid their wages," said Amitava Seth on behalf of Baluchar Kalyan Samity.

"We called up Pal out of worry, but both of his numbers were unreachable and later his phones were switched off. We went to the hotel where he was staying. But the hotel manager told us that he had left without paying the full bill. We paid him approximately ₹5 lakh," he said.

Dilip Smriti Sangha is scheduled to organise its 75th Durga Puja this year.

The club secretary, Sarbajit Das, said: "We have a theme for the Puja. We contacted the decorator for the construction of the pandal according to the theme. He worked for a few days. But for the last three days, he has been out of touch. Now we are in a helpless situation. We paid him an advance of ₹6 lakh. We want the police to take strict action against him."

Similarly, Manas Sarkar of Krishnakalitala Kalyan Samity, Bipul Dutta of Himalaya Sangha and a member of Beltala Club said that they were in a fix after the decorator went absconding, taking a hefty advance from them.

Parimal Ghosh, a member of the Malda Durga Puja Forum, said: "Police should find the decorator immediately and arrest him for harassing five major Durga puja organisers of Englishbazar."

"We are now working day and night to complete the pandals so that at least we can worship the goddess," Seth said.

A police officer said they were trying to track down the accused decorator.