Journey of Aneesh Sarkar IPS (Deputy Commissioner of Police, Bidhannagar Zone)

His initiation into the police service was in the Maoist hotbed of Lalgarh, Paschim Medinipur where he was first a probationer and thereafter entrusted with anti Maoist operations. After spending close to 3 years there, he was posted as Assistant Commissioner of Police (Airport) in the newly formed Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate, where he was instrumental in nullifying the notorious Babai gang, which had orchestrated a number of murders in the city. As Assistant Commissioner of Police, Anti Terrorist Squad, Bidhannagar, he and his team had arrested the head of the Jamiat ul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), which was involved in the Bardhaman blast case. Thereafter, as Deputy Superintendent of Police, CID, he was involved in arresting the main and other accused persons who had committed the sensational Ranaghat rape case, which at that time had hogged the headlines. While in the CID, he had infiltrated cyber networks of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), after the arrest of a terrorist of that organization by the CID. That helped in understanding many of the ways and means of that proscribed terror group in perpetrating violence. He was then posted as Additional Superintendent of Police, Murshidabad and during a long tenure in that capacity, he dealt with the tragic Daulatabad bus accident, which had cost 42 lives and had resulted in outbreak of severe violence, the control of which, despite being injured, had earned him words of praise from the Hon’ble CM of West Bengal. He had also managed the violence in the aftermath of the NRC agitation in his area. Thereafter, he was engaged in fighting the drug mafias of Kaliachak as Additional Superintendent of Police (Rural), Malda, wherein many arrests and drug recoveries were made. As Special Superintendent of Police, CID, (Malda) zone, the fight against drug trafficking continued with the notable recovery and seizure of about Rs. 1.4 crore of drug money from a house in Gazole, Malda. Also, he was entrusted with cattle smuggling cases of Murshidabad and despite many odds, had managed to freeze most of the Indian assets of the main smugglers, who had years back left the country, after having run the smuggling network, when it was at its peak. His return to city policing as Deputy Commissioner of Police (Bidhannagar zone) since February 2024 has been an eventful one which has necessitated dealing with several tricky situations.

Mr. Sarkar is on the verge of completing his debut novel, based on the Maoist movement in Lalgarh (2008 to 2011). It is based on his own experiences while he was posted there. The novel traces the journey of a police officer and three rebels in the backdrop of the insurgency, from its rise to its ultimate downfall.