Title - RPF trio suspended for assault

Three Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel were suspended on Wednesday after being "found guilty" of brutally beating up a passenger in Howrah station on Tuesday. Sub-inspector T.K. Biswas, assistant sub-inspector A. Rajak and constable Uttam Debnath could not be arrested as they are absconding. Bivash Kumar Pal, a passenger who had come to Howrah aboard the Jagannath Express, had accused the trio of beating him up because he refused to pay them a bribe. Pal's fault was that he had travelled in a coach reserved for the physically challenged although he is fit. In his complaint with the Howrah GRP, he said he had offered to pay the fine for the offence, which is much less than the bribe demanded from him. This, he said, had angered the trio. "Preliminary investigation shows that the three cops are guilty. We have suspended them and are conducting a detailed inquiry, on the basis of which further action will be taken," said Aroma Singh Thakur, senior divisional security commissioner (I), Howrah. GRP personnel were unable to trace the trio. "We have not seen them anywhere near the station after we received the complaint," said a GRP officer. nTheft: A person was arrested on Wednesday for allegedly stealing a bag containing Rs 7 lakh from a trader at a hotel in the New Market area. Gopal Hatwal, who works at a nursing home in Ranigunj, had promised to help computer hardware trader Santosh Goenka to buy goods from Calcutta at a cheap rate. At the hotel where they were staying, Hatwal stole the bag containing the money. He even accompanied Goenka to New Market police station to lodge a complaint. He confessed to his crime during interrogation, said cops. Around Rs 2 lakh has been recovered. nSuicide: A patient admitted to the ophthalmology department of RG Kar hospital was found hanging in a bathroom near the general ward on Wednesday morning. Mahua Biswas, 35, had a retinal infection and was in the hospital since August 4. Police said she used her bedspread to hang herself. nArrest: Four people were arrested for kidnapping a former colleague and attempting to extort a ransom of Rs 1.15 lakh from his family. Dipayan Barua, a Sonarpur resident, was kidnapped on Tuesday near the Patuli police station. His abductors called his wife for ransom. She lodged a diary with Patuli police station. The cops traced the cellphone from which the call had been made and arrested Asim Modok, Partho Dey, Amarjit Modak and Manishankar Roy. Barua was rescued from their office in Sonarpur.