When Bihar’s gangster and arms dealer Pappu Chowdhury’s name came up in the November 16 attempt on Trinamool Congress (TMC) councillor Sushanta Ghosh’s life last month, it confirmed one thing to law enforcement authorities: the growing nexus between organised crime syndicates of the two states.
According to police sources, recent months have seen a “surge” in criminal activity in West Bengal, many of these linked to gangs from across the border in Bihar. There are estimated to be at least 50 such gangs operating in Bihar’s areas bordering Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Nepal, a senior police officer from Bihar said.
The rise of arms and ammunition being smuggled into the state from Bihar has also added to these worries. According to data accessed by The Indian Express, 58 people have been arrested and 115 weapons — including finished and unfinished firearms – have been seized in 14 raids conducted jointly by the Kolkata Police’s Special Task Force and Bihar Special Task Force in Bihar’s arms factories in the last three years.
Most of these raids were conducted in Munger, where police sources claim there are several units assembling firearms.
According to the sources, Bihar gangsters such as Pappu Chowdhury and Subodh Singh are allegedly responsible for “orchestrating” a series of high-profile crimes in West Bengal. Chowdhury gained notoriety between 2010 and 2018, and his gang has allegedly been active in the Seemanchal region – comprising districts such as Kishanganj, Katihar, Purnia and Araria – but has also been linked to extortion cases and bank heists in Samastipur and Vaishali, and even as far as the neighbouring Jharkhand.
“In such cases, police of both states have to work in tandem,” a former superintendent of police who had been posted in Katihar said.
But Chowdhury isn’t the only known Bihar-based gangster whose name has cropped in West Bengal police investigations. Probe into the 2019 murder of BJP leader Manish Shukla allegedly led to Subodh Singh, who’s been accused of a string of crimes in West Bengal — including the 2023 murder of Durgapur businessman and alleged coal mafia Raju Jha, and the foiled heist of Rs 4 crore at a jewellery shop on June 12 in West Bengal’s Raniganj. Singh’s name also cropped up in the attempted killing of businessman Ajay Mondal in Belgharia this June.
According to police sources, Singh, a Class 8 dropout, operates through nearly 100 henchmen, many of them sharp shooters. Currently lodged in Bengal’s Alipore Central Jail, he is believed to have run his operations while at Patna’s Beur jail, where he was lodged until July this year.
“Subodh’s name has cropped up again and again since last year for crimes in Asansol, Barrackpore, Ranaghat, and Raniganj to Domjur. The Subodh Singh gang has been also active in Bihar and West Bengal for years in the looting of banks and business establishments, extortion and contract killing cases,” a senior IPS officer of the Bihar cadre told The Indian Express.
This apart, the arrest of four suspects in connection with the heists at two well-known jewellery shops in Nadia and Purulia in August led police to uncover their link to a Bihar-based gang. On October 7, an alleged Bihar-based gangster Mohammed Adil alias Babar, who had 12 cases against him – including six in Bengal – and was carrying a bounty of Rs 1 lakh, was killed in an encounter with the special task force of the Bihar Police in Purnia district. The police recovered one country-made carbine and six pistols from the encounter site.
“Most of such gangs had been involved in bank looting, extortion, contract killings and examination paper leaks,” he said.
Recoveries made during a joint operation by the Kolkata and Bihar STFs at an arms assembly unit in Bhagalpur, Bihar. (Express Photo)
Meanwhile, there’s also been a rise in arms smuggling between the two states. Consider this:
*On November 13, Kolkata and Bihar Special Task Forces conducted a joint raid at an alleged arms assembly unit being run inside a house in Munger, Bihar and arrested two suspects, Mohammed Monazir Hussain and Mohammed Nasim. Inside, authorities allegedly discovered disparate parts of guns, raw materials and the equipment to make firearms – such as a lathe and milling machines. According to officials, the unit was being run under the guise of a food plate manufacturing unit.
*On November 9, the Kolkata STF, acting on specific input, detained one Mohammed Ismail Khan of Ghangri in Jharkhand’s Chatra district following raids at his residence there as well as at another one of his houses in Rajabazar, Kolkata. Authorities allegedly recovered three single-shot firearms, two 7 mm semi-automatic pistols, 50 rounds of 8MM live cartridges, and 40 rounds of 7.65mm live cartridges.
*On September 25, joint raids at an “active mini-gun factory” in Chandpur village of Bihar’s Bhagalpur district led to the detention of five people – including the owner of the land, Shivnandan Mondal. Police found 15 pistol parts such as sliders and barrels as well as equipment to make firearms.
On his part, a senior police officer admits that the Bihar connection in these cases underscores “the porous nature of the border and the ease with which criminals operate across jurisdictions”, calling for “enhanced interstate cooperation” to tackle the problem.
But the increasing frequency of such connections has given rise to calls for stricter border control, with leaders from the ruling Trinamool Congress laying the blame on lax policing at border areas.
“People pay a salary to the police. They do good work during Durga Puja but the question is how pistols from Bihar are entering Bengal. What do these police (people) do? Can’t they stop such people and check,” senior TMC leader Sougata Roy asked at a public rally after Sushanta Ghosh’s murder led to a political uproar.
