Barrackpore and adjacent areas, home to several closed factories and mills, have become a hotbed of crime where gangs openly fight for realty spoils.

Police sources said at least four gangs were active in the Noapara-Titagarh-Sodepur-Madhyamgram-Kamarhati belt on the northern fringe of the city, thriving on political patronage. "Crude bombs are as readily available in these areas as gutka and paan," said a senior officer of the North 24-Parganas police.

The bomb that went off inside a compartment of the Sealdah-Krishnagar local while it was passing through Titagarh at 3.50am was of a crude variety.

"Barrackpore and the localities surrounding it have always been prone to criminal activities. There was a lull immediately after an attempt on my life in 2014," said Rabindranath Bhattacharya, a senior Trinamul leader and secretary of the bar association in Barrackpore.

"The situation changed after many of those accused in my case were released on bail before the civic elections. Today's blast on the train is a pointer to the rise in criminal activities in this belt."

The attempt on Bhattacharya last summer had revealed cracks in Trinamul in this industrial belt. Sources said the strife stemmed from a fight for area domination by two groups in the party - one led by Bhatpara MLA Arjun Singh and the other by minister Jyotipriya Mullick, also the party's North 24-Parganas president.

While senior Trinamul leaders dismiss such allegations in public, the spate of bombings on April 25, the day the municipal polls were held, proved that the Barrackpore-Titagarh belt was sitting on a stockpile of arms.

The first victim of violence on April 25 in the Barrackpore industrial area was Panchu Sonkar, a voter in Titagarh. He was shot at early in the day while he was standing in a queue in Ward 6 and had to be rushed to hospital. The next few hours witnessed a series of bombings, including one on a Trinamul party office and three in Dom Patty, sending Titagarh cops scurrying for cover.

"A man named Ganesh Prasad had died in a blast in Dom Patty three days ago. The police have not recovered any splinter from the spot," said a resident of Mondalpara in Titagarh. "If the police were really active, Kana Bhola, the main accused in today's train blast, would have been arrested much earlier."

Today's blast has left many wondering whether it is safe to take a train ride in an area where the railways is the transport lifeline for lakhs of daily commuters. Besides office-goers and traders, a large number of children travel on local trains early in the morning with their parents on their way to school.

"I don't know whether it would be safe anymore to take my daughter to her tuition by train. Anything can happen," said Sukriti Guha, a homemaker from Belghoria.

A former chairman of Titagarh Municipality, Prasanta Choudhury, admitted an upswing in the crime graph. "Parts of GC Road and areas near the station are infested with drug addicts. I have asked the deputy railway manager to ensure there is proper security in and around Titagarh station. We have also told the police to take necessary steps."

This trend of police waiting for instructions from political leaders before swinging into action has left many across this belt cringing in fear.

If the Titagarh blast took place early in the morning, two people were murdered in the middle of a busy road in Madhyamgram on May 7 evening. Two men were riddled with bullets inside their car and a third is still in hospital.

The killer as well as the killed had their names in the police records as known criminals but they were freely going about their businesses.

"One of my friends was attacked by snatchers in the evening at Boardghar on the Sodepur-Madhyamgram road when she was walking to the bus stop," said Suravi Mukherjee, a homemaker from Sodepur, barely a few kilometres from Madhyamgram.

Tuesday's alleged attacker, Bhola, is said to have played an active role during the polls to ensure the victory of Trinamul candidate Saraswati Das.

Some alleged that Saraswati's husband Rajesh Das, a local party leader, had offered patronage to Bhola and his men.

Rajesh, however, denied the allegation. "I have known Bhola for years as he lives in my locality but there is no question of patronising him," he said on Tuesday.

Saraswati said she was not aware of anyone called Bhola. "Who is Bhola? I don't know anyone by that name."

The police said Bhola and his gang-members - such as Subhas Pasi and Gangiya - were petty criminals who have been arrested several times on charges of theft and snatching in and around Titagarh.

"These criminals earlier only carried knives. But now they are carrying bombs as well and do not baulk at hurling them," said a senior officer of the detective department of the Barrackpore commissionerate. "That is something we have not witnessed in the past. Since they are relatively new in handling bombs and ammunition, they can get very risky."

Those following the politics of the Barrackpore belt since the days of the Left militant trade unionism say the likes of Bhola have started playing a dominant role ever since a slew of real estate projects started coming up, mostly on the land of closed industrial units.

"While big-ticket realty projects started coming up in north Barrackpore, Sodepur, Khardah and adjoining areas, a syndicate raj of supplying building materials flourished," a senior Trinamul leader in Sodepur said.

"Illegal scooping of sand from the banks of the Hooghly in Barrackpore and Manirampur yields anything between Rs 5 and Rs 8 lakh a month."

It was this fight for spoils that led to the May 7 killings of Babu Sen and Nungkai in Madhyamgram. Both are said to be part of a landfill syndicate that feeds on the booming real estate business in Madhyamgram, Barasat and Kamarhati.

"Babu is the right hand of Anwar of Kamarhati, who now controls all the supply to major construction sites in and around Kamarhati," an officer at Madhyamgram police station said.

In such a high-stakes game, there has to be some casualties. In this case, it is the security of the common man.

CALENDAR OF VIOLENCE

May 12: Bomb goes off inside a compartment of the day’s first Up local train between Titagarh and Barrackpore. 
Six injured.

May 9: Ganesh Prasad killed in bomb injury in Dom Patty, Titagarh

May 7: Babu Sen and Nungkai killed in a shooting on Madhyamgram flyover. The two were allegedly part of a landfill syndicate

April 25: Panchu Sonkar shot at around 7.30am while he was waiting in queue to cast his vote at Titagarh 

January: Sunil Karan, a young Trinamul worker, shot dead in Barrackpore. Locals said he had come in the way of developers, filling up a huge water body in Ruia, bordering Khardah and Barrackpore