Fatal heart attack after cop

HOWRAH: One of the co-owners of a brick kiln in Howrah suffered a massive heart attack and died on Wednesday after alleged extortion calls from the officer-in-charge of Shyampur police station. Hiranmoy Kopat fell ill in high court, where he had gone to file a petition against OC Taid Anwar, and died at a nursing home half an hour later.
Just over a year ago, the 62-year-old former primary schoolteacher teamed up with six other retired persons to start a brick kiln in Shyampur's Gurepol area.On February 15, Kolkata Port Trust sent them a notice, accusing them of illegally extracting earth from the Hooghly's embankments. KoPT sent a letter to the OC too, requesting him to take action against the firm. Anwar immediately detained Dipak Sarkar, a partner.
Sarkar says he was taken to Shyampur police station and released late that evening only after the six other owners "paid Anwar Rs 25,000 as the first instalment of bribe of Rs 1 lakh". The second instalment' was paid the next day, he said.
The OC allegedly kept calling all seven co-owners from Monday (February 16) till Wednesday evening. "He threatened to slap major charges on us and send us to jail unless we paid the remainder of the bribe immediately," claimed Sarkar.
Unable to bear this, the co-owners decided to move Calcutta High Court. "In our petition, we contended that the KoPT charge against our firm was incorrect as we were not breaking the embankments," said Sarkar.
Kopat received the last of the alleged threat calls from the OC at 5.30 pm on Wednesday, when all seven were in high court. "Will we have to go to jail in this old age," Kopat muttered, and fell unconscious. He was admitted to a nursing home at Alampur crossing around 6.30 pm but died half an hour later.
His death triggered protests against the OC in Shyampur. Kopat's colleagues filed a complaint with Shyampur BDO Arghya Prasun Kaji on Thursday, who forwarded it to Uluberia SDO Sanjoy Basu. "A complaint has been received against the Shyampur OC from the six remaining co-owners of the brick kiln. A high-level probe will be conducted," said Basu, forwarding the complaint to Howrah's DM. Howrah SP N K Singh said: "I will definitely look into the complaint once it is sent to me."