With many cases of fake IAS, IPS and policemen being reported from Kolkata and several parts, the Kolkata and the state police have decided to develop an internal intelligence and surveillance system so that these kinds of cases can be detected at an early system.
Following the instructions from the state home department, the state police and the Kolkata Police have decided to create their own espionage team under the Intelligence Branch and Special Branch respectively who will continuously keep an eye on any kind of development of this nature.
Senior police officers are of the opinion that unless there is some kind of patronisation from within the police force these kinds of things cannot happen.
"There was a time when the police force had their own intelligence system that used to keep a tab on all kinds of developments going around in the departments but due to pressure of work and shortage of man-power this system became non-functional and naturally the senior officers of the department remained unaware of the developments going around in the police stations and lower level," a senior IPS officer of the state police department said.
"This is a process to revive the system so that the higher ups in the police and administrative hierarchy can have an idea of what is going on at the ground level. This increases the discipline in the force," the officer added.
"However, of late, often certain developments at the police station level or lower departmental level do not reach the headquarters. Hence, some unethical practices by a section often remain beyond the knowledge of the top brass.
"The recent spurt in arrests of fake IAS and IPS officers from different corners of the state has something to do with this information gap, that is encouraging some rotten eggs in the department to clandestinely back these fraudsters," said a top official of Kolkata police.
He went on to add, "Unless these fraudsters had some kind of backing from our internal rotten eggs, it would not have been possible for them to continue with their forgery over a long period of time, sometimes right in front of police, as it happened in case of the fake vaccination camp at Kasba run by a bogus IAS officer, Debanjan Deb."
"The same has been the case of fake IPS Rajashri Bhattacharya. Otherwise, how could sophisticated weapons and fake identity cards of Special Branch of Kolkata police have been recovered from the residence of Bhattacharya who used to impersonate him as an NIA superintendent," he said.
"Similarly, scanned copies of original documents of the state secretariat and Kolkata Municipal Corporation were recovered from the laptop of fake IAS officer Debanjan Deb. In the case of Rajarshi Bhattacharya, documents hinting links of an assistant sub-inspector of Park Street police station have already been accessed by the investigating officials," he added.
Now both the state police and Kolkata Police want to revive and strengthen that old system of internal spying so that even the smallest developments at the police station and divisional levels reach the headquarters of the two forces, especially their intelligence wings. The Special Branch (SB) of Kolkata Police and the Intelligence Branch (IB) of West Bengal police, both headquartered at the Lord Sinha Road in central Kolkata, have been specially entrusted to rebuild the system of internal spying.
Police sources said that the SB and IB officials will make periodic visits to the different police stations and talk to the police personnel deployed there. "Whenever they smell any wrongdoing or suspect anyone's involvement with any unethical practice, they will inform the higher authorities, who will then suggest preventive actions," the city police official said.
