Rad­hi­ca Sookraj

Rel­a­tives of wound­ed po­lice of­fi­cer Kashyap Lochan are dis­ap­point­ed that his col­leagues left him at the mer­cy of gun­men when he re­spond­ed to an armed rob­bery in progress at Viet­nam Bar in Bar­rack­pore last Fri­day.Lochan's cousin Ricky Ramb­ha­jan said af­ter look­ing at the footage on Crime Watch they were ap­palled to see the re­sponse of the two of­fi­cers with Lochan. He said they failed to cov­er him when he was shot re­peat­ed­ly.

Ramb­ha­jan al­so dis­put­ed re­ports that Lochan was not get­ting the best care at the San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal where he re­mained ward­ed un­der po­lice guard."He is get­ting good treat­ment and he is much bet­ter. He is talk­ing and we are hap­py and proud that he is re­cov­er­ing well," Ramb­ha­jan said.

Asked whether Lochan planned to stay in the Po­lice Ser­vice, Ramb­ha­jan said, "It's a lit­tle too ear­ly to say but we think he should stay. This should not de­ter him." He said Lochan's par­ents were very sup­port­ive of him. Hos­pi­tal of­fi­cials said Lochan might be dis­charged by week­end. Once he re­turns home, ad­di­tion­al pre­cau­tions would be tak­en.Ramb­ha­jan said it might be a few months be­fore Lochan healed com­plete­ly.

...Off-du­ty cops were in the bar–wit­ness

A man who was in­side the bar dur­ing the rob­bery said two off-du­ty po­lice of­fi­cers were in the bar when the ban­dits struck but they too failed to in­ter­vene.

"It was very poor re­sponse from the po­lice. The po­lice were very in­ex­pe­ri­enced. We were in­side the gam­ing room when two men, one with a ski mask and the oth­er with a green cam­ou­flage ban­dan­na over his face, walked in. The man with the au­to­mat­ic gun said 'Lie on (ex­ple­tive) ground and if you raise your head, I will buss way your (ex­ple­tive) skull,'" the wit­ness said, speak­ing on con­di­tion of anonymi­ty.

About 25 peo­ple were in­side the bar, he said. Af­ter shov­ing thick wads of cash in­to the bag, the rob­bers saw Lochan ap­proach­ing on the sur­veil­lance cam­era. Lochan kicked the door which swung open and the gun­men fired."While the shots were fir­ing, there was no talk­ing. Af­ter the 12th shot, one of the ban­dit start to bawl, 'Dog come, I have you cov­ered, dog come.' He start to fire at the po­lice car with an au­to­mat­ic weapon. The po­lice were not pre­pared. They couldn't even take out the safe­ty from the gun.

"The WPC was so shak­en that oth­er po­lice of­fi­cers had to pick up Lochan and car­ry him to the hos­pi­tal. She hid in the po­lice car. The ban­dits had a lot of time to es­cape," the wit­ness said.Af­ter Lochan was placed in the car, the ve­hi­cle broke down at Mon­key Town and an­oth­er po­lice car had to take the in­jured of­fi­cer to the hos­pi­tal, an­oth­er source said.He said the off-du­ty po­lice of­fi­cers and the back-up of­fi­cers could have held the rob­bers if there was prop­er co-or­di­na­tion and re­sponse among them.