Kolkata, Jun 14 (IANS): Chodup Lepcha, Kolkata Police's constable, who killed a woman by indiscriminately firing on the streets of the city before killing himself on June 10, had developed an imaginary encounter-phobia since the time he joined services a little over a year back.
In fact, many of his colleagues had reported to the higher officials that Lepcha even often refused going to raid duties expressing fear that he might be involved in any encounter which might ultimately take a toll of his life. During just a year of service, he was also given three postings in short intervals because of his erratic behaviour.
According to Kolkata Police sources, because of his expertise in accurate target shooting during the training period, Lepcha's first posting was with the Special Task Force (STF), a posting for which generally police personnel have to wait for years.
But he shifted out of STF because of his imaginary encounter-phobia. Once while accompanying a raiding STF team, he came down the vehicle midway complaining that he was being taken in an encounter- mission. "He even tried to make a social media live of that sequence which he failed because of the timely intervention of his colleagues," confirmed a city police official, who did not wish to be named.
His second posting was in the traffic department, where too he started showing negligence in duties causing inconvenience for his senior personnel. Only in May he was posted to the armed police wing, though initially he was not allotted his service self-loading rifle (SLR) from which he fired indiscriminately on June 10.
It is learnt that immediately after getting a posting to the armed police wing, Lepcha went to his native village in the hills of Kalimpong on a leave for ten days. After joining back, he was allotted his service SLR and posted at the guard outpost kiosk near the Bangladesh Deputy High Commission office at Park Circus. Now questions are being raised on whether a proper medical check-up of Lepcha was conducted before he was granted such a sensitive duty and that too with firearms.