KOLKATA: Call it a wild rooster chase that sent three Bengal cops running after the bird to decide who owned it. Finally, the bird did come home to roost after 24 hours, ending the tricky runaround for the exhausted cops.
On Friday (September 2), curious residents of South Dinajpur’s Balurghat watched with fun as the police “investigation” got underway after two persons staked their claim on the rooster. The officer-in-charge of the police station, Shantinath Panja, allowed the cock to roam freely, asking his men to follow the bird: wherever it would roost at the end of the day, its owner would have it all.
Three policemen kept an eye on the rooster as it pranced around. On Friday evening, homemaker Chumki Sarkar, a resident of Bhairabitala in Balurghat town, turned up at the police station alleging that her rooster was taken away by one of her neighbours Debasish Biswas, an e-rickshaw driver.
“I recently purchased the fowl from a chicken vendor. Biswas took it away and claimed it was his bird,’’ Chumki told the police. Armed with the complainant, police went to Biswas’ house. “He claimed he bought the rooster when it was a cockerel,’’ said an officer of Balurghat police station.
The row over the rooster was brought under the notice of Panja, the police station in-charge. “We held a meeting. The officer found a way out. He asked to allow the rooster to roam freely on Saturday and wait until evening to see where it returns – whether at Biswas’s house or Chumki’s,” said a policeman. The logic was that roosters and hens generally return to their owners’ place in the evening.
Panja wanted the bird’s freedom but told his men to ensure that the bird was not stolen. Three policemen went after the rooster throughout Saturday. “In the evening, the bird kept roaming around bushes and we had to follow it with torch lights. Early Sunday morning, it finally went to Chumki’s house to roost. “The fight was thus settled in favour of Chumki,’’ said a police officer.
Take me home