KOLKATA: The main accused in the shootout at a city bar in which one bystander was killed and two others were injured, has been arrested from Gujarat.
Kolkata Police Joint Commissioner(Crime) Pallab Kanti Ghosh today said the accused Bablu Bose alias Nanty was arrested by the force's detectives from near Surat airport yesterday morning.
With Nanty's arrest, total seven people have been arrested in connection with the shootout in which 30-35 bullets were fired.
The accused had fled the city on July 8, the night of the shootout, to Joynagar in neighbouring South 24 Parganas district and stayed there with his girlfriend. On getting to know that the police were looking for him in connection with the incident, he along with the woman fled to Mumbai the next day, Ghosh said.
He stayed in Mumbai for two days before fleeing to Gujarat where he was almost penniless. Nanty then called his associates to help him out with money.
"One of them (associates) happened to be our source. On learning from him we set up a trap and sent Nanty a message asking him to wait at a place near Surat airport where the money would be delivered to him. Nanty came to the spot and was arrested yesterday morning," Ghosh said.
It was a difficult task for the police to locate Nanty's girlfriend in Mumbai as she was using a different name. During a raid in Burdwan in search of Nanty, police came in contact with another woman who disclosed the name that his girlfriend was using in Mumbai.
"That led us to the spot where Nanty was staying. But when we reached that place, Nanty had fled," Ghosh said.
The shootout followed a brawl late on July 8 night during which bar authorities had got into an argument with seven to eight unidentified people after they refused to pay for the services. They had left and returned within a few minutes with around 20 people and opened fire killing the bystander.