Mystery shrouds DSP killing in Tripura

AGARTALA, March 23 ? Mystery shrouds the killing of a DSP of Tripura police, Kalyan Sarkar, and three other policemen including one Meghalaya Police inspector Pratap Chetri in a pitched shoot-out yesterday in Dharmanagar town in North Tripura district. It is evident that a serious communication gap was primarily responsible for the bizarre incident that took the lives of four policemen and rocked both Tripura and Meghalaya. Even as an eerie silence descended in the shocked town of Dharmanagar, there is still confusion as to how such a fatal mistake could take place when both the police force were pursuing the same gang of the kidnappers. Senior police officers are tight-lipped while some of them unofficially put the blame squarely on Meghalaya police for not informing their chase of the kidnapper who was supposed to come to Dharmanagar. Moreover, it seems that the ?red cap? has created much confusion. The kidnappers of Nayak Aggarwal had said that the man who would come to Dharmanagar to receive the ransom would donned a red cap, and the man who would hand over the demanded Rs 15 lakh should also wear a red cap. According to a version of unconfirmed reports, one Meghalaya police man donning a ?red cap? to deceive the kidnapper as the man bringing the money and boarded an autorickshaw where reportedly the ?red cap? kidnapper was already there. And this confused the Tripura personnel keeping a close watch on the private bus service complex. They mistook the Meghalaya police as the kidnapper and DSP Kalyan Sarkar tried to pursue the auto-rickshaw. At that moment one Meghalaya policeman opened fire at the DSP. The fierce firefight began at that moment. The police arrested the autorickshaw driver and two others, but no clear picture or what actually went wrong triggering off the gun battle is not yet known. Police investigation is on but all are agreed on one point that none of the police force was aware of other?s modus operandi. That was the fatal mistake. Meanwhile, all the political parties have demanded a high-level enquiry into the incident. The Opposition Congress has demanded a CBI inquiry. The State Government has already ordered a probe into the incident by DG intelligence, John Mathew, who had rushed to Dharmanagar yesterday as soon as the news reached police headquarters here. A high-level meeting of the police top brass of both Tripura and Meghalaya is expected to take place today. DSP Kalyan Sarkar (28), was a brilliant student with first divisions in both Madhyamik, HS exams. He was also topper with first class in History honours from Tripura University. Kalyan Sarkar came from a very poor family of Gandhigram near Agartala. His father Kartik Sarkar was a daily labourer. Kalyan Sarkar joined the Tripura police as TPS in 1998. He was trained in Barrackpur, West Bengal and his first posting was in North Tripura district as DSP district intelligence.