In recent years, Calcutta has become a hideout for some of the “most wanted” criminals from other states.

At times, they have arrived posing as innocent tenants or vulnerable patients awaiting surgery, blending into the city’s residential complexes and guesthouses with little initial suspicion.

The arrest of three suspected killers from Rajasthan on Thursday night has once again highlighted how out-of-state criminals are using the city as a shelter.

The trio’s arrest brought back memories of a 2021 operation, when gangster Jaipal Singh Bhullar from Punjab and his associate Jaspreet Singh, alias Jassi Kharar, were found hiding inside the Shukhobrishti housing complex in New Town. They were posing as regular tenants before being gunned down in a daring daylight special task force raid.

Bhullar and his associates were wanted in the killing of two assistant sub-inspectors of police. In 2017, Bhullar and his accomplices allegedly robbed an ATM refill van and fled with ₹1.33 crore in Banur, near Chandigarh. He and his brother, Amritpal Singh Bhullar, also allegedly fled with 30kg of gold after a daylight robbery at a financial institute on Ludhiana’s Gill Road.

Bhullar had been on the run for more than a decade.

More recently, a group of gangsters wanted for a high-profile murder in Patna were tracked down to a guesthouse in Anandapur. They were posing as a patient awaiting surgery and his relatives. Among them was Tauseef Badshah, the alleged shooter who led a five-man team into the ICU of Paras Hospital in Patna and shot dead gangster Chandan Mishra in July.

Tauseef and his cousin, both with multiple criminal cases against them, had checked into the guesthouse using medical documents. The police later learned this wasn’t Tauseef’s first visit to Calcutta; he had earlier stayed at the Shapoorji housing complex in New Town.

These repeated incidents have prompted concerns over how safe these criminals feel while taking refuge in the city.

Some observers see it as a sign of how easy it is for outlaws to blend into Calcutta’s neighbourhoods. However, the police dismiss that interpretation. “Criminals could be hiding anywhere. The good thing is, they are getting caught here,” said a senior officer of Kolkata Police. “These same criminals were hiding in other cities too, but were caught only when they came here.”

In the case of the Rajasthan trio, the police said they had travelled through several states before arriving in Calcutta. Their suspicious behaviour near food stalls near Swabhumi on Thursday led to their arrest.

In the 2021 New Town shootout, the police had recovered five automatic pistols, 89 rounds of ammunition, and ₹7 lakh from the flat where Bhullar and his associate were staying — a measure of how securely they felt hidden.

The twin incidents — Bhullar in 2021 and Tauseef this year — prompted the police to tighten norms for verifying tenants and monitoring guesthouse bookings.