First, a stern note of warning from the fire services department last Wednesday. And then, a showdown between some shop-owners and the proprietor on Tuesday.

Air-Conditioned (AC) Market, on Shakespeare Sarani, one of south Calcutta’s leading malls, with two storeys underground, is in the eye of a storm. Trouble erupted on Tuesday afternoon after the proprietors of the highrise, ABL International Limited, snapped power connections to 72-odd stalls, prompting shop-keepers to gherao owners Surendra Rampuria and Siddharth Rampuria.

After a series of meetings, supply was finally restored around 6.30 pm, nearly five hours after it was snapped.

Tuesday being a half-day, shop-owners arrived around 2.30 pm to find that power lines had been snapped. The shop-owners, according to Shakespeare Sarani police, tried to elbow past the security guards and reportedly assaulted them, and some officers of the company as well.

A few cars were stopped from entering the complex and for a brief while, things went haywire. With word spreading fast, customers, who were there for shopping days before Rakhi, too, scampered away.

A traffic sergeant on duty rushed to the spot along with two officers from the local police station. The revolving gates were closed for some time as people gathered all over the compound, and on the road.

Members of the AC Market Association and ABL International representatives first turned up at the local thana. A whip from divisional deputy commissioner of police Anuj Sharma finally brought the curtains down for the day and the lines were restored.