Loreto school shooter is Bangla history-sheeter

Kolkata: The main accused in the shooting outside St Mary's Girls' High School adjoining Loreto Convent in Entally almost a week ago has turned out to be a Bangladeshi history-sheeter who spent six years in jail in a murder case. No wonder that the victim, Mohammad Nazir, a person with criminal records himself, could not recognize Mohd Ariful Islam alias Mintu Sk though he could identify all the others accompanying him.

Mintu has, however, been insisting that he was an Indian citizen.

Even the police at Lalbazar seem to have been taken aback that a criminal from Dhaka could dare to open fire in a central Kolkata street. The incident took place early on February 15, when Nazir went to drop his niece to Loreto school on his bike. Suddenly four men-three of them identified as Md Mustakim alias Bablu (30), Ayub Khan (25) and Md Ilis alias Illu (42) who have been arrested-came riding on two bikes and shot at Nazir. As he collapsed to the ground, the accused fled, two of them hijacking Nazir's bike.

"While describing the accused, Nazir could only say that a tall lanky man riding pillion had opened fire on him. When we verified Bablu and Illu's call details, we found a number which they had called a number of times. On tracking it, we found the user holed up in a guesthouse at Barabanki in UP. He turned out to be Mintu, who came in contact with Illu in Dubai, where they drove taxis together. Three years ago, Mintu sneaked into India illegally and arrived in Entally. Over the past three years, he married a local resident and settled down here," said a source. When Illu started looking for a sharp-shooter to avenge the attack on his boss Bablu last year, he reportedly asked Mintu to help him out and the latter agreed, said an officer.

The police are stunned to find that Mintu possesses all Indian documents, from PAN to Adhaar cards. "He is claiming he is an Indian. But we are checking with the Mirpur police in Bangladesh about his antecedents. We are not officially treating him as an illegal immigrant yet," said a senior anti-rowdy squad officer, arrested Mintu.

Lalbazar has been grappling with the sudden influx of history-sheeters from other states as well as Bangladesh into the country. Now, with the officers finding out that Bablu is brother of a local Trinamool ward president, the police suspect that criminals from across the border may play a hand this election. It would be easier for them to get away as they were not known faces to cops, the police said.

The Bihar police earlier this month have arrested a hired contractor and a known muscleman during elections - Buchan Sharma carrying a huge reward on himself and considered close to the RJD in Bihar - from Kolkata. Sharma was not alone. Guddu Rai - an extortionist of UP and Bihar - on the run from both UP and Bihar police since 2009 was arrested by the UP STF just three days prior to Sharma's arrest. A master kidnapper, he had been on the UP STF and Bihar STF most wanted list since 2005 and a reward of Rs 65,000 was announced for his arrest.

Of late, Bangladeshi criminals, termed "free loaders" by the police, have also been joining local snatchers and burglars. Sources in the detective departments in Kolkata, Bidhannagar and South 24-Parganas said at least 15 Bangladeshis helped gangs of robbers and snatchers here. They were the ones who procured weapons from across the country as did Mintu who had travelled extensively in UP and Bihar to buy arms, the police said.