Bengal police shoot dead ‘criminal’ who allegedly opened fire at cop two days ago; fifth encounter in 6 months

A history sheeter in Bengal's Birbhum district was killed in a police encounter on Sunday afternoon, police said. The deceased has been identified as Ratan Sheikh and had allegedly opened fire and injured a police constable two days ago while police tried to arrest him shortly after his release on bail in one of the cases, district police officers said.

Sheikh was charged in 36 criminal cases, police said.

"Ratan Sheikh, a man with a long criminal history, was found during a manhunt ordered by chief minister Suvendu Adhikari who visited the injured constable, Biswajit Das, at the Burdwan Medical College and Hospital on Saturday," a Birbhum district police officer said, requesting anonymity.

A second officer, requesting anonymity, said that police traced Sheikh on Sunday and interrogated him to locate the pistol he used on Saturday. He led the police to Nanoor where the pistol was kept near a bridge but suddenly opened fire with it.

The officer said, "The bullets hit a police vehicle. The police team returned fire in self-defence and Sheikh was hit."

Doctors at Bolpur subdivisional hospital declared Sheikh dead and his body was taken to the morgue.

Sheikh is the fifth criminal to have been killed in a police encounter in West Bengal since the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power in May. Of the four men who died earlier, three were accused in rape and murder of minor girls, while one was the prime suspect in the murder of a BJP worker.

The Birbhum district police did not make any official statement on Sheikh's death till 7 pm.

Constable Biswajit Das was shot in the leg during a raid at the Layekbazar bus stand in the Santiniketan police station area of Bolpur on Friday when he went there to arrest Sheikh in connection with one of the 36 cases.