The theft of a heavy-duty battery from a mobile toilet van inside Kolkata’s deputy commissioner of police (south) office complex has prompted a citywide security review of government and civic infrastructure ahead of Durga Puja.
The van was parked next to the divisional reserve office on the compound of the DC South office at 34, Park Street. Its battery was removed after the vehicle was tampered with. The theft was discovered at around 10 am on Tuesday.
An FIR was registered at Park Street Police Station on Wednesday following a complaint by sergeant Arindam Datta, motor transport officer of the South Division. The detective department is assisting the local police with technical investigation, including examination of CCTV footage.
A senior officer described the value of the stolen battery as limited but said the location of the incident was significant. Lalbazar officials acknowledged that access to a vehicle inside a police compound could indicate vulnerabilities at other government and civic facilities, including public utility sites and municipal yards.
Police said the incident came amid a wider pattern of targeted thefts involving government and civic infrastructure. Kolkata Municipal Corporation compactors and electric vehicles have also been targeted, according to officers. Police said a gang previously operating near Vedic Village in Rajarhat had shifted towards the southern and port areas, while individual offenders posing as scrap dealers were entering residential neighbourhoods.
In response, Lalbazar has instructed local police stations and detective department units to identify pattern-based offenders before the festive season. Investigators are examining CCTV footage, call detail records, timing patterns and geographic clustering to trace possible links between thefts.
The Park Street case remains under investigation, with the police and detective department continuing their technical assessment of the compound and the stolen vehicle battery.
