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| The mouth of the tunnel on Red Road. Picture by Amit Datta |
An 11ft-long tunnel was discovered in the heart of the city, close to Fort William, on Friday.
The tunnel on Red Road, barely 100 metres from a 24x7 police kiosk, was allegedly dug up by vagrants to store stolen goods.
The L-shaped tunnel has its mouth on a grass patch behind concrete railings separating the Maidan from Red Road and is around 3ft in diameter, said a constable of Maidan police station who had crawled inside the tunnel to locate its end. “The tunnel bends to the right after around 8ft before reaching a dead end,” he said.
Police said a patrolling team found five vagrants sitting inside a 3ft-deep hole opposite Fort William on Thursday night. The tunnel was spotted after the men were picked up and detained for questioning.
The cops waited till morning to explore the tunnel. When a team of officers from Maidan police station and the army reached the spot on Friday morning, they found another youth, identified as Mohammed Shafil inside the tunnel. He was arrested and a bunch of stolen copper wires and scrap iron sheets were recovered.
“The men could have dug the tunnel to stock stolen items. We are also investigating if they were digging further to reach the underground cables,” said Rajiv Mishra, the joint commissioner (headquarters), Calcutta Police.
“I have seen the spot and started an inquiry,” said commissioner Surajit Kar Purkayastha.
The cops said the tunnel will be filled up with soil and bricks once preliminary investigation is over.