In what seemed like a blockbuster thriller movie, IPS officer Arijit Sinha led his team of police officers to capture some of the most wanted and dangerous pirates from the Sundarbans, who entered the country from Bangladesh to smuggle arms, kidnap, and commit other such illegal activities. What followed was a nightlong battle and sheer display of valiance by the officer who risked his life to capture the dreaded pirates.
In an exclusive conversation with Indian Masterminds, Mr. Arijit Sinha, IPS, currently posted as the SP of Jhargram, a Maoist insurgency-affected district in West Bengal, talked about that spine-chilling night, and how he carried out the operation with the help of his team.
COLLECTING INPUT
During 2017-18, the officer had four encounters with pirates operating in the Sundarbans zone, an area that has several abandoned islands and a holy riverine area, bordering Bangladesh from where miscreants are known to operate. There is a lot of cargo movement and fishing activities happening in and around the area.
This region is primarily deserted and ungoverned due to the tides, which come in and go out four times every day. It is hard for law enforcement organisations to patrol what consists of dozens of rivers and many tributaries. Smugglers have long used this path to enter India with weapons, ammunition, explosives, and agents, then kidnap defenceless farmers and demand ransom.
“We had been working on a 2015 incident of a fisherman’s kidnapping and the payment of ransom through Hawala routes and had inputs of a gang operating in that area, which led to our first operation in December 2016 at Andharia near Kuntali in Sundarbans,” Mr. Sinha told Indian Masterminds.
PLANNING AN AMBUSH
Once the officer was well-versed with the entire situation and had enough input related to the pirates, the police started preparing for a planned ambush. A team was set up under Mr. Sinha, who was then Baruipur SP. Local police from the Kultoli and Moipith Thana were roped in, too. The team gathered further intel and moved in late Friday night.
“We had input that the pirates were going to attack a fishing trawler, but due to the topography of the region, it was very difficult to pinpoint the exact location from where they were coming from. Therefore, after coordinating all the inputs that we had, we laid an ambush trap at a particular place, ready with weapons, for a potential firefight,” shared the officer.
A NIGHTLONG FIREFIGHT
After around 1 AM at night, Mr. Sinha and his team saw a trawler approaching them. Since the police team had set up nakas in the river itself, the movement of the trawler was challenged. Instead of stopping at the naka, the pirates, sensing danger, started firing indiscriminately at the police teams. Soon, a heavy firefight kicked off in the river, with both the parties extensively firing at each other. One of the bullets also hit Mr. Sinha’s boat but they continued firing.
“It was pitch dark at night and our flashlights and halogen lights could only cover a limited radius. On a riverine terrain, it’s a slightly difficult proposition. All we could see were bullets flying all over the place,” shared Mr. Sinha.
Eventually, the pirates ran out of bullets and got cornered in a creek. The police teams realized what was happening and decided to advance forward. As they moved towards them, the pirates started jumping in the river to escape.
“But we had our people in the river as well, to prevent them from taking a detour. Gradually, we jumped on their boats and were lucky enough to catch them with their weapons. Once the pirates realized that they had been injured and surrounded, they ultimately surrendered,” he told Indian Masterminds.
NABBING THE GUILTY
The police was able to nab seven pirates from the boat, along with their ammunitions. There were no fatalities in the process. After bringing them in, they were interrogated for inputs related to other similar gangs operating in that area. Once they got leads, they worked on it, patched up a bit of technical surveillance, and post that, the officer and his team went out nabbing pirates in three different incidents in Jharkali and Sundarbans coastal region.
In one of the incidents, the pirates narrowly escaped the hands of the police as it was very dark and the team could not properly gauge the line of the pirates’ approach which helped the pirates to jump on the banks of the river and escape.
“However, the next day, we raided the village on the bank and found all of them hidden at one place. Since they were a Bangladeshi gang, they were not thoroughly aware of the terrain and we could easily surround the village and capture them,” he said.
The officer’s bravery resulted in the successful cleaning up of the pirates from the Sundarbans region. According to him, since 2018, there hasn’t been a single complaint filed for fishermen abduction and demand for ransom or attacks on cargo boats and fishing trawlers.
It is noteworthy that Mr. Sinha has also been recommended for the honourable ‘Shaurya Padak’ award for his extraordinary level of undaunted and conspicuous bravery and daring attitude in performing his duty, along with two other officers, Mr. Pradeep Paul, the officer-in-charge of the place and Mr. Lakshmi Biswas from the special operations group.
The officer has a special word of appreciation for his entire team during the operation, without the support of which, he could not have led the operation, he believes.
