Police personnel stand outside the nursery school where 2 people were shot dead this morning
The principal of a nursery school in Kolkata and her security guard were arrested today for the murder of two young men. The victims were workers of a security agency and had gone to the nursery school with 16 others at 5 am to take possession of the disputed property. The principal claimed she was attacked and opened fire. But CCTV footage apparently does not corroborate what she said.
"Two people entered the office and attacked me, started tearing my clothes, started throttling me," claimed Mamata Agarwal, the principal. But CCTV footage, according to police sources, had no such recording. Instead, what it had was the picture of a woman security guard who had intruded walking towards Mamata Agarwal's room and from inside the room, someone opened fire.
"There was firing possibly from inside. Two people died on the spot. One is injured and in hospital," said Pallav Kanti Ghosh, Joint Commissioner, Detective Department, Kolkata Police.
The school was on disputed property. Mamata Agarwal lived there as did Ratanlal Nahata, one of the claimants of that property. Early today, 18 workers of a security agency, Active, apparently hired by the other claimant, Sanjay Sureka, stormed it.
Once the firing began from Agarwal's room, most intruders fled. But some ran into a room nearby on the premises. That is where Agarwal and her guard Pappu Khan are seen entering with guns several times. That's where the bodies were found.
"Who actually fired the fatal shots, we don't know," said police sources. "But the intruders were armed with lathis only. And only Mamata Agarwal and Pappu Khan had guns."
Seven rounds were fired, two from a .303 and five from a single barrel gun which Mamata and Pappu claimed were licensed arms belonging to Nahata. Twenty live cartridges were found from the spot.
Relatives of the two victims - one 26, the other 28 - say what happened is completely unacceptable. The two were only doing their job. But a job at 5 am? That too has raised questions.
The property at 9A Short Street was disputed since 1946. In 1999, the owner, Sailabala Sain, allegedly sold it to a party in Mumbai in 1999. After her death in 2003, it was found she had willed the property to her two granddaughters.
The granddaughters, in turn, sold it to Ratanlal Nahata. But trouble erupted in 2010 when on Sanjay Sureka claimed that he had bought the property from the Mumbai party.
Nahata and Sureka went to court and, according to police sources, Nahata lost as Sailabala Sain's will was without probate. But Nahata did not move out.
But however complex and contentious the property dispute, that two young men be shot dead over it has shocked Kolkata.