Man arrested with hundreds of govt files

PRANK OR MADNESS?

Subhro Maitra TNN
Malda: This case of the missing files didn’t need a Holmes or a Poirot. Residents of Malda’s Englishbazar on Tuesday nabbed a man, who had been stealing files from government offices for months. A raid in his house uncovered a hoard of files — including those from the police station, treasury, health department, SDO office and the railways. He has been arrested. In his late thirties, Sajal Sinha entered government o f f i c e s a n d walked out with imp o r t a n t files for no ap p a re n t reason. Local residents claimed he was eccentric by nature. On Tuesday morning, pedestrians at Krishnapally in English Bazaar noticed files from the office of the District Inspector of Schools scattered on the road. The DI office was informed, but minutes later, Sinha arrived at the spot and introducing himself as an employee of the DI office, wanted to take the files away. But other employees of the same office were present and could not identify him. Sinha’s game was up when some local residents identified him as someone known for his eccentric behaviour. The crowd then went to Sinha’s home and a search revealed hundreds of government files from under his bed. These included files belonging to the police station, the treasury, the health department, the SDO office, North Bengal State Transport Corporation, railways and the DI Schools. Sinha admitted that he was in the habit of p i n ch i n g filed from g ove r n - ment offices. S i n h a was arrested on Wednesday, but police were not sure if he had a criminal motive. “He seems to have psychological problems. He may have been playing a prank,” SP Satyajit Bandyopadhyay said. District magistrate Sridhar Ghosh has ordered an inquiry. “It is surprising that so many files were missing from these departments for so long. I’ve asked the police to Inquire into the matter thoroughly.” Sub Divisional Officer (Malda) Prakash Pal denied that any files were missing from his office.