High-tech cams, CCTV, FASTag, toll plaza inputs: How West Bengal police tracked and nabbed Bihar shooters in Kolkata

The gang members were not using any cellphones to stay off the grid. So, there was no way the police could track them using their mobile tower location.

Around 9am on July 18, a day after Bihar gangster Chandan Mishra was shot dead at Paras Hospital in Patna, the West Bengal police received an alert from their counterparts in Bihar that the gang behind the crime was heading towards West Bengal.

The six attackers involved in the Chandan Mishra murder case seen on CCTV after the incident. (Photos from X)

The gang members were not using any cellphones to stay off the grid. So, there was no way the police could track them using their mobile tower location, officials said.

“The accused persons in the car had switched off their mobile phones. Hence, we were not able to track them. We had the vehicle’s number and its description. The only way to track them was the vehicle in which they were travelling,” said a senior IPS officer involved in the case.

Officers of the West Bengal police and Kolkata Police took the help of some advanced gadgets and software to pick up digital footprints of the vehicle as it moved from one corner of the city to another. The killers had no inkling.

“Based on various inputs that were received, we were certain that the vehicle would reach Kolkata by the evening of July 18. We started analysing FASTag and toll plaza data on the route the vehicle would possibly take to reach Kolkata, such as Maithon, Dankuni, Palsit and Vidyasagar Setu,” said the officer.

The white-coloured vehicle entered Kolkata around 10:30pm on July 17 through Vidyasagar Setu, which connects Kolkata and Howrah over River Hooghly.

Once the vehicle was on Kolkata’s roads, police started tracking it with the help of the Automated Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) system.

ANPR is an advanced camera that automatically reads vehicle number plates as they come under the lens, allowing these details to be compared against database records. They help security agencies in tracking vehicles.

The officers received inputs from Bihar police that the gang could be meeting one person named Ehsaan, who was their local contact. Ehsaan stayed at Sukhobrishti, a posh residential housing campus at New Town in Bidhannagar.

ANPR data revealed that the vehicle, after entering Kolkata, took AJC Bose Road and crossed Chingrighata on EM Bypass while moving towards New Town. After a few hours the vehicle returned to Kolkata. It was spotted near Park Street around 3:50am in the early hours of July 18.

“After that, the car remained untraceable for the next few hours. There could be multiple reasons as to why even the high-end ANPR momentarily fails to track a vehicle,” said an officer.

Meanwhile, the police were also scanning through other CCTV cameras installed on roads to identify the gang members inside the vehicle. The cops had clear footage of Tauseef, Nishu Khan, Harsh and Bhim in the car.

“As the vehicle went off-grid for some time, we used a specialised software for profiling. We also checked various hotels. Tracking the vehicle’s movement was very critical for us. Around 5:30pm on July 18, the vehicle was again spotted near Urbana, a high-end residential housing complex in east Kolkata. As the vehicle was moving away from the arterial roads, where there were no cameras, it became difficult to trace it,” said an officer.

Multiple teams were deployed in east Kolkata, particularly in Anandapur and its adjoining area where the vehicle was last spotted, to scour the area. The vehicle was then spotted near a guest house, a few metres from Anandapur police station.

“Based on real intelligence analysis, we identified a few places where the gang could be hiding. We narrowed down on Anandapur. Meanwhile, CCTV footage corroborated our analysis. The car was spotted around 70-80 metres from a guest house,” said a senior Kolkata STF officer.

Teams from the Kolkata Police, STF and police commandos surrounded the guest house located in a residential area and finally arrested the four criminals, including main accused Tauseef alias Badshah, his cousin Nishu Khan and two aides, Harsh and Bhim.

Police found that Tauseef had even got a haircut and shaved his beard and moustache to change his appearance.

The police also said that Tauseef and his gang used decoys at least twice to throw the investigators off track. In Patna, they had roped in a woman to give the impression that they were a family. While coming to Kolkata, they had brought Nishu Khan with them, who couldn’t walk and had to be carried.

“They wanted to give an impression to the hotel staff that they had come to Kolkata for Nishu’s treatment,” said an officer.

Since the time they entered Kolkata on the night of June 18, it took the cops less than 24 hours to track them down, identify the location and nab them.

“Human intelligence and analysis of the inputs we were receiving from some of the advanced machines played a major role in the operation. First we had to identify the area and then we had to physically verify. Once that was done, the operation to nab them was started,” said an official.