Man Recced Area 7 Times Before Intruding into Mamata Residence: Police

The man who was arrested for intruding into West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s residence here last week earlier recced the locality at least seven times, a senior Kolkata Police officer said on Monday. Investigations revealed that during those visits, the accused allegedly clicked photos of her residence using his mobile phone and lured local children with toffees to get information about the house in Kalighat area, said the officer who is part of the SIT formed to probe the matter.

In the intervening night of July 2-3, Hafizul Mollah sneaked past the security arrangements and got into Banerjee’s residence with an iron rod. He had stayed there till he was discovered by security guards in the morning. “This man has been visiting the locality for quite some time. He has been there at least seven times. Every time he was there, he had given toffees to children and tried to get information from them regarding the CM’s residence. We have found several photographs of the CM’s house on his mobile phone,” the officer said. Investigations also revealed that Mollah has been using at least 11 SIM cards and made calls to numbers based in Bangladesh as well as Jharkhand and Bihar. However, the nature of the conversation is yet not known, he said.

He had swum across the border to Bangladesh during last year’s Durga Puja and stayed there for a few days. He is being interrogated to know about his activities in the neighbouring country. To a question, the police officer said, There are indications that Mollah might be linked to a terror outfit. But nothing has been established as yet.

Meanwhile, a city court on Monday extended Mollah’s police custody till July 18. The intrusion triggered a security scare with questions being raised about how he went past the Z-Plus security cover that the chief minister gets. Following the incident, the authorities enhanced security in and around the CM’s residence and removed director (security) Vivek Sahay from his post.

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