Police arrests four men for beating elderly in Maniktala over Kali Puja Chanda

Under the flickering streetlights of North Kolkata's vibrant Maniktala neighborhood amid Kali Puja-Diwali a 57-year-old idol decoration artist named Paritosh Chakraborty was brutally assaulted late Sunday night, October 19, 2025, transforming a routine walk home into a harrowing tale of extortion and violence. Fresh from completing a Kali idol decoration, Paritosh was cornered just 200 meters from his Manaiktala's Muraripukur area residence by four members of a local club, who demanded an immediate 2,001 rupees in "chanda" for last year's and this year's puja donation contributions. Despite his promise to pay the next day, the group erupted in fury, hurling him to the pavement and beaten him mercilessly which resulted a massive head injury and battering his eyes in a frenzied attack witnessed by stunned passersby. Bleeding profusely and dragged toward his alleyway entrance, Paritosh's desperate cries finally drew neighbors to his aid, scattering the assailants as his son rushed him to RG Kar Hospital for emergency treatment, including five stitches to his fractured skull and urgent care for potentially blinding eye trauma.

The assault, unfolding around midnight in Maniktala's Muraripukur, underscores a grim underbelly of Kolkata's festival fervor: aggressive donation drives by neighborhood clubs that prey on vulnerable artisans like Paritosh, whose sporadic salon business—selling decoration supplies—has been shuttered for over a year, leaving him reliant on seasonal puja contracts, including upcoming Jagaddhatri Puja. His son who filed the complaint at Maniktala Police Station, recounted the horror in vivid detail: "They surrounded my father, demanding the money for both years. When he pleaded for time, they threw him down and beat him relentlessly" The accused—Santu Samaddar, Raja Sarkar, Biswanath Das, and Bishu Das—all locals tied to the club next to Paritosh's shop—fled in panic but couldn't evade justice for long, their auto-rickshaw joyride through the city turning into a frantic evasion that ended abruptly. This wasn't just a random brawl; it exposed how fixed "puja chanda dues" ignore personal hardships, turning community traditions into tools of coercion that leave families like Chakraborty's in fear and financial peril.

Maniktala Police had orchestrated a textbook takedown, arresting the alleged accused—nabbing them near Salt Lake Stadium along the EM Bypass after a high-speed trace of their movements. As Paritosh fights through pain and uncertainty in the hospital, his family grapples with the ripple effects: canceled contracts looming over Jagaddhatri Puja and a shattered sense of security in a neighborhood meant for celebration. Locals are rising in condemnation, with residents decrying the "chanda culture" that poisons festive unity, while police vow a thorough probe into similar rackets. Paritosh's story, etched in stitches and bruises, stands as a stark call for reform—reminding Kolkata that the idols we adorn should symbolize protection, not peril, and that no artist's hands should be bloodied for honoring tradition.