Cops claim raids led to hotelier’s release

Uday Shankar Chanda in the city on Sunday Dhanbad police claimed on Monday that raids by them had forced hotel executive Uday Shankar Chanda’s abductors to release him without collecting ransom. Sources, however, maintained that the executive director of the three-star Skylark Hotel in Dhanbad was released after his family members paid ransom. The deputy inspector general of police (coal belt), Lakshman Prasad Singh, said: “No ransom was paid to secure the release of Uday Shankar Chanda. The criminals released him because of the pressure exerted by the police.”

Counsel sessions & cameras at varsity

 The authorities of Rabindra Bharati University on Monday announced measures to stop student violence and create an atmosphere conducive to academics.

Five students of the university and an assistant professor allegedly beat up a 59-year-old employee on the BT Road campus on Friday, causing his death, after an altercation over parking of a motorcycle.

Counselling students to uphold Tagorean ideals, stepping up security and improving teacher-student relationship are some of the steps announced.

“We will implement all the measures as soon as possible,” said Bhaskar Sengupta, the registrar of the university.

Shock at trust betrayed - Murdered lady often invited robbery mastermind to lunch

The alleged mastermind of the Bidhan Nivas robbery that led to the murder of a 93-year-old woman was the estate’s most trusted guard and often invited to lunch by the victim.

Nadia resident Swadesh Mukherjee, who started working as a guard at the Ultadanga estate around Puja 2009, have been arrested along with four others in connection with the robbery and the murder.

“We trusted him the most,” said Surya Narain Bhattacharya, the son of 93-year-old Shanta, who had been throttled to death by the robbers last Wednesday.

Metro ticket to the past

A hastily printed version of the suburban rail ticket was Metro Railway’s answer to the chaos and confusion triggered by its mismanaged transition to tokens and smart cards from a ticketing system that had served it well for 25 years. A manic first Monday without the familiar paper tickets with magnetic bars at the back saw commuters queuing up for up to an hour to buy a multi-ride smart card or around 20 minutes on an average to get a single-ride token. For many in the queues for tokens, a surprise as bewildering as it was bemusing awaited them.

City takes triple hit on manic Monday Power cuts & heat woes

Staggered power cuts for up to nine hours since Sunday night tormented parts of Calcutta amid a spell of sultry weather, but CESC has promised relief and the weather office has forecast rain on Tuesday. Between seven and 10 phases of “power outage” triggered by a transformer fire in a state-owned plant in Kalyani were reported across the city till 8pm on Monday evening, affecting over 8 lakh out of CESC’s consumer base of 25 lakh.