Katwa, April 16: Officer-incharge Madhab Mondol is at the centre of another controversy. Two months ago, he had tried to play moral cop to young lovers. This week, he was reportedly seen parading some alleged dacoits in Katwa town, cautioning residents against them.

The Katwa police station OC reportedly told residents that a mobile phone seized from the arrested dacoits had local Congress MLA Rabindranath Chatterjee?s phone number stored in it.

Nichu Banerjee, a resident of Katwa, 180 km from Calcutta, said Mondol brought some arrested people in a vehicle to Baroaritala.

?The OC pointed to the arrested persons and told us they are dacoits and asked us to be careful about them. He also showed us what a pipe gun (seized from those arrested) looks like.?

Mondol then told the residents that Chatterjee?s phone number had been found stored in a mobile phone seized from the dacoits, Nichu added.

The MLA was furious and lodged a complaint with subdivisional officer (SDO) Amitjyoti Sengupta.

?The OC took the arrested people to various areas, including Baroaritala, Lenin Sarani and Goenka More and told residents, ?beware of these people. They are dacoits and thieves and have contact with the MLA. We have found the MLA?s number in their mobile phone?,? an ?insulted? Chatterjee said.

?Why should the police parade criminals and link people like me with them? I think there is a deeper conspiracy hatched by the CPM before the municipal polls next month,? the MLA said.

Sengupta said an ?inquiry? has been ordered after the complaint from the MLA. ?Appropriate measures? will be taken against the police station, the SDO added.

Burdwan police superintendent Niraj Singh said: ?As soon as we received the complaint we asked the OC (Mondal) about it. He has denied the allegations made in the complaint.?

Singh said Mondol had told him that the arrested people had been taken to various places for the sake of investigation.

?On the face of it, we think there is an organised conspiracy. We are taking the matter seriously,? the police superintendent said.

Mondol was unavailable for comment. When the Katwa police station was contacted, assistant sub-inspector Arun Roy said: ?I am sorry, he has asked us not to pass on calls to him.?