Kolkata: A single-judge vacation bench of the Calcutta High Court has directed West Bengal Police to take necessary legal action against Prashant Barman, the absconding former BDO of Raiganj Block in North Dinajpur district, within the next 10 days.
Barman is an accused in the case of the abduction and murder of gold merchant Swapan Kamilya last year.
Although the single-judge vacation bench of Justice Apurba Sinha Roy passed this order on Wednesday evening, the copy of the order was uploaded on the website of the Calcutta High Court on Thursday.
The single-judge vacation bench has also asked the office of the state’s Director General of Police (DGP) to submit a compliance report to the Registrar General of the Calcutta High Court within the next 10 days.
At the same time, the single-judge division bench has also ordered a departmental inquiry against the investigating officer concerned for dereliction of duty.
Earlier on May 26, Burman was presented in a district court in North 24 Parganas in two cases — one related to the murder of the gold trader and the other was a drunk-driving case.
However, despite the judge of the district court waiting at his bench for a long time on that day, the investigating officer in the gold-trader murder case was unable to furnish the necessary documents related to the case to the court. Thereafter, Burman was granted bail in the drunk-driving case by the court against a personal bond of Rs 1,000. Since then, he went absconding again.
Barman’s arrest, which happened in New Town on the northern outskirts of Kolkata around midnight on May 25, was coincidental and dramatic. At that time, he was also absconding as per police records.
According to information provided by the Bidhannagar City Police, under whose jurisdiction New Town falls, Barman, while driving his car in a heavily intoxicated state at night, hit a two-wheeler rider.
The two-wheeler rider somehow got up and blocked the path of Barman’s vehicle and asked him to get out of the vehicle.
Instead of being apologetic, Barman, in a heavily intoxicated state, started abusing him. Soon, some local people assembled at the spot, and Barman started abusing them as well. One of the local persons present there recorded Barman’s entire abusive behaviour and later circulated it on social media.
As the situation at the scene grew tense, personnel from the local Ecopark Police Station arrived.
They detained Barman and took him to the police station. Later, he was arrested.
Barman, a close confidant of some leaders in the Trinamool Congress, had been absconding for a long time after being accused of the murder of gold merchant Swapan Kamilya at Salt Lake’s Dattabad in October last year.
On October 29 last year, Kamilya’s body was recovered from near a canal at Dattabad, Salt Lake.
Barman was accused of abducting and killing him.
The accused BDO had even managed to obtain anticipatory bail from a sub-divisional court in the matter.
The Bidhannagar City Police then approached the Calcutta High Court to oppose the anticipatory bail.
The High Court rejected the anticipatory bail order and directed him to surrender by December 22, 2025.
However, when he failed to do so, the Bidhannagar Court issued an arrest warrant against him.
In that situation, Barman approached the Supreme Court. A bench of Justice Rajesh Bindal and Justice Vijay Bishnoi ordered him to surrender by January 23, 2026. Since then, Barman has been absconding.
(IANS)
