KOLKATA: Almost 48 hours after the death of 25-year-old Shankar Mondal in Kalighat — barely 20 metres from the police station — after being assaulted by several people, the cops have carried out the first arrest in the case. While 26 others had been arrested earlier for either rumour-mongering or for their alleged involvement in near-lynch cases at Phoolbagan and Burtolla, this is the first recorded arrest in an incident where a person has died.Police said the accused has been identified as Kanai Patra (55), who is employed as a local security guard at a garage and stays at Amrita Banerjee Road. He was picked up around 1am on Tuesday from his residence. “We have recovered CCTV footages where it’s clear that Mondal was assaulted by five men. We are identifying all the accused. Two of them were Patra and his son Abhijit, who took the lead in assaulting Mondal. While it is still not clear why Mondal died (his internal injuries are insufficient to kill him), the fact that the assault could have triggered a physical illness, especially since the victim was a drug addict, cannot be ruled out,” said an officer Efforts are on to nab Patra’s 28-year-old son, a private firm employee at Mudiali, who is now absconding, said police.Sambhu Chakraborty, a hawker, told TOI that he can even identify all the men involved in the assault on Sunday. “I saw Kanai’s son along with locals like Babu, Mona and even a woman named Aarti,” said Chakraborty. When contacted, Mona, a bus driver, claimed he was present there but did not beat Mondal. The police had lodged a suo motu case on Monday.Sources said Mondal was assaulted twice over a period of time. The second time was around 9am on Sunday when several witnesses had seen the man being tied to the tree and beaten up. Mondal’s family alleged that the cops should have stepped in. The cops only said that they have “a recording that the family refused to lodge a complaint”. Senior officers at Lalbazar, though, said they would look into the exact sequence of events that led to Mondal’s death.Sources said on Holi day, when Abhijit was sleeping in a garage, his mobile was stolen.“The next night, two youths came to our residence and told Abhijit, who had dropped out of Asutosh College , that they have nabbed a thief, who was later beaten up and dragged towards a shopping mall. Even if my brother was present he was not seen beating up anyone. My father stayed back in the room,” Patra’s another son, Monojit, told TOI. Police said CCTV footage clearly showed that Patra and Abhijit were slapping Mondal.

Stay updated with all the Kolkata Latest News headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.