Dilip at Bidhannagar (North) police station on Friday. Picture by Amit Datta

He was the undisputed king of a crime world he created over the last seven years, spanning the entire Rajarhat-Salt Lake-Lake Town area, and was wanted in over a dozen cases, including those of murder and extortion. Though his beginnings were humble, Dilip Banerjee, alias Tapai, alias hatkata Dilip, had a meteoric rise.

Police records reveal that Dilip, close to 30, was originally a resident of Basak Bagan, Lake Town. He and his brother Bapai were good students and ?basically mild-natured?.

?Things changed drastically after their father, Jatin Banerjee, drove out their mother and shacked up with another woman,? a police officer said. ?Dilip started drinking and was sucked into crime.? Soon, he and friend Nona Roy, a resident of Green Park, became henchmen of local criminal Pinaki Mitra. He murdered his accomplices Nona and Chhotka and established his notoriety. On July 29, 1996 he was arrested in Lake Town when his gang had assembled to commit a dacoity. In 1998, he was arrested five times by Lake Town and Bidhannagar (North) police. Every time, he got out on bail.

On August 13, 1998, Dilip lost his left hand, wrist up, in an accidental explosion while he and his accomplice Badal were making crude bombs. The same year, he was arrested in Ajmer Sharif in Rajasthan, in connection with a dacoity and was imprisoned in Tihar jail. Later, Calcutta police arrested him and he was released late in 1998.

Returning to Calcutta, Dilip fell out with Pinaki and formed his own gang. His second innings started in 2000, when, under political patronage, he started playing an active role in the municipal and assembly elections. All this time, his gang had started an extortion racket along VIP Road, Salt Lake and Rajarhat, targeting promoters and hoteliers. The following year, he was held twice in Barasat for possessing firearms.

He was next picked up in August 2003, from Hotel Ayash in Salt Lake on charges of extortion. He was arrested again in 2004 and was released before the civic elections. During a soiree at Nayapatty on June 28, Dilip and his gang had drinks at Hotel Merlin Park and allegedly went on a shooting spree, killing three persons.