Kolkata Police

The Kolkata Police (Bengali: কলকাতা পুলিশ) (formerly "Calcutta Police"), is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement and crime prevention within the metropolitan area of the city of Kolkata, West Bengal. It is one of the two primary police forces in West Bengal, the other being the West Bengal Police.
The main operational area covered by the Kolkata Police is the Kolkata Metropolitan Region, excluding the neighbouring cities of Howrah (covered by the Howrah City Police), Barrackpore (covered by the Barrackpore City Police), Chandannagar (covered by the Chandannagar City Police) and the neighbouring locality of New Town (covered by the Bidhannagar City Police)
The primary functions of the Kolkata Police Force are maintaining law and order in the city, traffic management, prevention and detection of crime and co-ordinating various citizen-centric services for the people of Kolkata. As of 2024, Kolkata Police has ten divisions covering 91 police stations. It has a strength of approximately 37,400 and a territorial jurisdiction of c. 530.34 km (204.77 sq mi). In addition to general policing, the Kolkata Police has several specialist branches and nine battalions of the Armed Police.
The Kolkata Police has often faced criticism from the public, with the force being commonly accused of being a puppet institution of the state government. It came into national spotlight following the 2024 Kolkata rape and murder. The force encountered accusations of being complicit in destruction of evidence during the investigation of the incident. Furthermore, the traffic department has been slammed for anti-bicycle policies, by enforcing a blanket ban on bicycles on several thoroughfares for traffic flow and impounding bicycles for violating the ban, besides corruption and bribery when collecting penalties from bicyclists who violate or defy the ban.
The history of the present structure of policing in Kolkata goes back to East India company times, when the city was known as "Calcutta", and was an early settlement of the English East India Company. Calcutta was founded on the eastern banks of the Hooghly by an Englishman, Job Charnock in 1690. Policing in Calcutta's earliest days was confined to the Mughal administration and their local representatives. Bengal was still technically a part of the Mughal Empire, but the Nawabs of Bengal, based in Murshidabad in Northern South Bengal, were its effective rulers. The watch and ward functions were entrusted to a Kotwal or town prefect who had 45 peons under him, armed with traditional weapons like staves and spears, to deal with miscreants.
In 1720, the East India Company formally appointed an officer to be in charge of civil and criminal administration. He was assisted by an Indian functionary commonly known as black deputy or black zamindar. Under him were three naib-dewans, one of whom was in charge of the police. The settlement was divided into "thanas" (police stations) under "thanadars" who had in turn contingents of "naiks" and "paiks". A small contingent of river police was also formed. A statute passed in 1778 raised the strength of the police in Calcutta to 700 paiks, 31 thanadars and 34 naibs under a superintendent. In 1785 commissioners of conservancy were appointed for the town who also looked after watch and ward. Policing was still very loosely organised. In 1794, justices of peace were appointed for the municipal administration of Calcutta and its suburbs, under a chief magistrate who was directly in charge of the Police. In 1806 justices of peace were constituted as magistrates of 24 Parganas and parts of the adjacent districts within a 20-mile radius of the town.
The middle decades of the 19th century witnessed a greater systematisation and institutionalisation of policing in Calcutta. A city magistrate named William Coats Blacquiere inaugurated a network of spies or goendas (Bengali: গোয়েন্দা). In 1845 a committee under J.H. Patton brought about key changes in police organisation which now began to be modelled on the London Metropolitan Police. A Commissioner of Police was appointed with powers of a justice of peace to preserve law and order, detect crime and apprehend offenders. In 1856 the Governor-General promulgated an Act treating the Calcutta Police as a separate organisation and S. Wauchope, who was then the chief magistrate of Calcutta, was appointed as the first Commissioner of Police.
1857 was a difficult time for the English East India Company. The year saw the first upsurge against British rule. The rebellion led to the dissolution of the East India Company in 1858. It also led the British to reorganise the army, the financial system and the administration in India. The country was thereafter directly governed by the crown as the new British Raj. Commissioner Wauchope handled the situation ably and was knighted for his achievement. During the incumbency of his successor V.H. Schalch the Calcutta Police Act and the Calcutta Suburban Police Act were enacted in 1866.
In 1868, Sir Stuart Hogg set up the Detective Department in Calcutta Police with A. Younan as the superintendent and R. Lamb as the first-class inspector. Hogg was both the Commissioner of Police and the Chairman of the Calcutta Municipal Corporation. Sir Frederick James Halliday, who was appointed as the Commissioner of Police in 1906, also introduced several changes in the administration of Calcutta Police including the system of running a Control Room. In response to the threat of the nationalist organisation Anushilan Samiti, Haliday oversaw the creation of the Special Branch in June 1909 on the recommendation of Sir Charles Augustus Tegart. For his numerous contributions to the growth of the city police, he is regarded as the father of modern Calcutta Police. Sir Charles Augustus Tegart headed the Detective Department was the first cadre of the Indian Police (IP) force in the organisation. He reorganised the city police force and made it efficient. A highly decorated officer, he was the Commissioner of Police from 1923 to 1931 and was admired for keeping the city free from crime. However, he was unpopular with freedom fighters and his encounters with revolutionaries are a part of popular Bengali folklore. The same time saw the rise of three Bengali police officers named Ramgati Banerjee, Sukumar Sengupta and Zakir Hussain. During the Salt March movement in 1930, the Calcutta Police was headed by Charles Tegart as Police Commissioner, Ramgati Banerjee as DC (South) and Sukumar Sengupta as DC (North). Later, Banerjee left his position and took up teaching as a profession, and Hussain left the job to become the First Inspector-General of East Pakistan. Sukumar Sengupta continued in the job to become the first Bengali Inspector General of Police, West Bengal soon after independence.
The colonial history of the Calcutta Police force was primarily repressive and anti-nationalist. After India gained independence from British rule in 1947, Calcutta Police was re-organised as an essential element of the Indian law enforcement agencies. Surendra Nath Chatterjee was the first Indian Commissioner of Police. As of 2024, Kolkata Police has ten divisions covering 91 police stations. It has a strength of approximately 37,400 and a territorial jurisdiction of c. 530.34 km (204.77 sq mi). There are nine battalions of armed forces as well as specialised branches.
The emblem of the Kolkata Police, as a vestige of the colonial era, signifies its heritage and allegiance, both of the past and the present, formerly to the British Crown and since 1947, to the Indian Union.
It comprises the Maltese Cross surrounded by the Brunswick star—also featured on the emblems of all British territorial police forces and in India, the Garhwal Rifles (formerly the Royal Garhwal Rifles) regiment of the Indian Army and the Madhya Pradesh Police. In the centre, the State Emblem is featured above the national motto—Satyameva Jayate—taken from the Mundaka Upanishad.
As of 2024, Kolkata Police has ten divisions covering 91 police stations. It has a strength of 37,400 approximately and a territorial jurisdiction of 530.34 km (204.77 sq mi). The commissioner is the chief of the Kolkata Police. The Commissioner is appointed by the Government of West Bengal and reports independently to the Home Minister of the State. The headquarters are at 18, Lalbazar Street, near B.B.D. Bagh area in Central Kolkata. The Commissioner is an Indian Police Service officer of the rank of Additional DG & IG of Police. Manoj Kumar Verma is the present Commissioner. The State Government vests the Commissioner with the powers of a magistrate of First Class with limits within the suburbs of Kolkata. He has power to issue orders with his discretion.
The rank structure of the Kolkata Police, for the most part, resembles those of other Indian police forces. However, the ranks of Sergeant and Sergeant-Major are unique to the force. They were originally established as direct-entry ranks reserved for Europeans and Anglo-Indians during the British Raj, but were made available to Indians shortly after independence. Ronald Allen Moore, one of the final Anglo-Indian officers of the Kolkata Police (the erstwhile Calcutta Police) joined the force in the rank of Sergeant, retiring in the 1960s as a Senior Deputy Commissioner. Soon after, the rank of Sergeant-Major fell out of use and was abolished for the majority of the force. Nevertheless, the Kolkata Mounted Police retains the rank to this day.
It is important to note that the ranks of Sergeant and Sergeant-Major were represented by three chevrons and the national emblem (both on the arms) respectively until the 1990s, much like a Havildar/Sergeant and Company Havildar Major/Company Sergeant Major in the Indian Army, respectively. This made both ranks part of the non-commissioned officer group, and both ranks were below Assistant Sub-Inspector. However, in the 1990s, force-wide reforms were instated to put Sergeants at higher authority as compared to Assistant Sub-Inspectors, and Sergeant-Major as higher authority as compared to Sub-Inspectors. However, the ranks of Sergeant-Major and Sub-Inspector (both full and assistant) do not exist independently, as the Kolkata Mounted Police does not use the ranks of Sub-Inspector and Assistant Sub-Inspector, whereas other divisions do not use the rank of Sergeant-Major.
Also, unlike its counterparts in the rest of India, the Kolkata Police Force does not use the conventional five-pointed star for the insignia of ranks of Inspector and Assistant Commissioner. Instead, the four-pointed Star of the Order of the Bath—used for officer ranks in the Indian Army from its inception till 1950 (when India became a republic and adopted the five-pointed star for relevant insignia and also in the militaries/police forces of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth of Nations—or the 'pip' (as it is called colloquially in the United Kingdom and the modern Commonwealth of Nations) is used. The pip, largely a legacy of the colonial era, was used for all ranks of the force (from Inspector to Commissioner, then equated to a Colonel instead of a Lieutenant-General like today) until 1947, when new regulations stipulated that higher officers of the force (at and above the ranks of Deputy Commissioner) were to be drawn from the Indian Police Service (the erstwhile Imperial Police) instead of directly being selected from the lower and middle ranks of the force itself. Consequently, the five-pointed star used by the Imperial Police (and later the Army and all other services) came into use. However, it has remained as the rank insignia for Inspectors and Assistant Commissioners, as holders of those ranks are drawn from the force itself.
The jurisdiction of the Kolkata Police covers the area of Kolkata District and an adjacent area as well. That adjacent area, like Kolkata District, is within the boundaries of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation. The Kolkata Police's entire area comprises all 144 wards of the KMC. In March 2009 Kolkata police took 17 police stations of North and South 24-Pargana district under its wing. In September 2011 Kolkata police again extended their jurisdiction to 17 more police stations in the adjacent South 24-Parganas district in an effort to improve police service.
Police stations under the jurisdiction of Kolkata Police are as follows:
The Kolkata Police was criticized in the investigation of suicide of Rizwanur Rahman in September 2007, who was involved in an interfaith marriage with the daughter of businessman Ashok Todi. Several officers, including then commissioner Prasun Mukherjee were involved in torturing Rahman after being in cahoots with Todi. The case was subsequently transferred to the CBI after a State Government order.
The traffic department of Kolkata Police has been criticized for imposing blanket bans on bicycles on major roads and throughfares since 2008. The ban has been imposed to improve traffic flows, and violation of such bans has led to imposing a fine of Rs 100 or seizing of bicycles, along with harassment of riders at the hands of police officials. There have been protests against such bans, as neither bicycles have caused traffic congestion by traffic experts, nor the ban was approved by the State Government. The fines imposed against bicyclists do not conform to the violations in the Motor Vehicles Act, as the Act does not mention any penalties against bicyclists. Furthermore, traffic cops who impose penalties issue small slips which are chits of plain paper little bigger than postage stamps with a traffic police stamp, which incensed corruption and bribery. As a result of the ban, Public Interest Litigations were filed in the Kolkata High Court in 2014 against the traffic police department, which subsequently reduced the ban of bicycles from 174 to 62 thoroughfares following the court's intervention. Despite not being mandated in the Motor Vehicles Act, the Kolkata Traffic Police has been involved in impounding bicycles of riders defying or violating the ban.
The Kolkata Police has been condemned for being iron-handed towards bicyclists at several instances, such as performing stunts, riding through prohibited roads, and riding on pedestrian sidewalks/footpaths. For performing stunts, the department tried to raise the penalties from Rs 100 to 1000, but since bicyclists do not require license, it was resisted and heavily slammed by riders. Additionally, bicyclists who are found drunk have been charged under the Calcutta Police Act instead of the Motor Vehicles Act under the charges of public intoxication.
The Kolkata Police faced nationwide criticism for its handling of the 2024 Kolkata rape and murder and the protests that followed it.
In August 2024, a female doctor on night duty at R. G. Kar Medical College and Hospital in North Kolkata was raped and murdered. One civic police volunteer—who had a history of violence against women—was arrested by the Kolkata Police in connection with the murder. Following an autopsy of the victim's corpse, which revealed the presence of an abnormally high amount of semen and hinted to the involvement of multiple offenders, a nationwide doctors protest erupted. On the night of 14 August, during the initial protest, a mob comprising hundreds of vandals—widely accused of belonging to the ruling party of West Bengal, the Trinamool Congress—ransacked the hospital and in doing so, destroyed much of the physical evidence present within it. The Kolkata Police were accused of inaction against the mob.
Following this, dissent and defamatory speech on social media (most famously on Twitter) aimed against the force and government's handling of the case was met with cease and desist notices sent by the Kolkata Police's cyber police station, under section 168 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (or the Code of Criminal Procedure).
The Calcutta High Court transferred the case over to the purview of the Central Bureau of Investigation soon after the protests erupted. On 20 August, the Supreme Court took suo moto cognizance of the matter. The Court criticised the state government and its machinery (including the Kolkata Police), among other institutions involved in the incident.
On 14 September, Inspector Abhijit Mondal of the Kolkata Police was arrested by the CBI for destruction of evidence, compromising the scene of crime and delay in filing a first information report (FIR). Three days later, the state government removed Commissioner Vineet Kumar Goyal and Deputy Commissioner Abhishek Gupta to appease protestors.
During the Durga Puja festivities in October 2024, nine protesters were arrested by the Kolkata Police at a puja pandal in Ballygunge for charges under various sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (or the Indian Penal Code), including unlawful assembly, assaulting an on-duty public servant and public mischief. The Calcutta High Court granted bail to the protesters, noting that prima facie neither were their actions politically or religiously motivated, nor was there any evidence of criminal intent as they did not harm anyone; setting the bond at ₹1,000.
Kolkata Police operates Police Athletic Club, a team that competes in Premier Division of the Calcutta Football League.