Baby Chakraborty | KalimNews | July 19, 2025 | Kolkata : In a dramatic and brazen display of organized criminal violence, gangster Chandan Mishra—an undertrial on parole—was shot dead inside the intensive care unit of Paras Hospital in Patna on the morning of July 17. The gunmen, identified as members of a rival gang, calmly entered the hospital without resistance, opened fire at close range, and exited without haste. The entire incident was caught on CCTV, footage of which has since gone viral on social media, prompting widespread shock, political uproar, and a joint interstate police crackdown.
Within 48 hours of the incident, the Bihar Police, in collaboration with the West Bengal Special Task Force (STF), arrested five individuals from New Town, a satellite township near Kolkata, in connection with the murder. The arrests were made early Saturday morning during a series of coordinated raids at a residential housing complex. According to officials, these five individuals were not the direct assailants but had been providing critical logistical support—including shelter and transport arrangements—to the gunmen who carried out the hospital killing. The arrested individuals were found in two separate flats and one location outside the housing complex. Mobile phones and other documents have been seized, and digital forensics is underway, including the examination of call records and messaging app data.
Police officials have stated that the main suspects managed to flee Kolkata shortly after the murder. Surveillance footage captured their white getaway vehicle traveling through the Basanti Highway and passing through the jurisdictions of three police stations: Anandapur, Kolkata Leather Complex, and Bhangar. The vehicle is believed to have facilitated their escape from West Bengal, and search operations are currently ongoing across multiple districts.
The assassination of Chandan Mishra, a resident of Bihar’s Buxar district and a convict in over two dozen criminal cases including twelve murders, raises serious concerns regarding custodial security and law enforcement. Mishra was lodged at Beur Jail in Patna and had been granted parole for medical reasons, during which time he was admitted to Paras Hospital. On July 17, five armed and unmasked individuals, allegedly led by Tauseef Badshah, entered the hospital’s ICU—bypassing all security protocols and police presence—and fatally shot Mishra. The attackers were seen in CCTV footage walking out of the hospital premises with alarming composure. Additional social media footage surfaced soon after, showing them celebrating outside the facility.
Authorities suspect that the murder was orchestrated from inside a Bihar jail. Sheru Singh, a known gangster and a former associate-turned-rival of Mishra, currently in custody in Purulia, West Bengal, has been questioned in connection with the case. According to police sources, Sheru disclosed during interrogation that the murder plan was conceived by a member of his own gang, currently imprisoned in Bihar. The investigation has since expanded to examine jail communications, internal networks, and potential complicity among custodial personnel.
The incident has provoked intense political reactions. RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav alleged that criminals are receiving protection from within the state machinery, questioning the law and order situation in Bihar. Independent MP Pappu Yadav went further, demanding the imposition of President’s Rule and alleging a breakdown of governance marked by caste-based violence and political shielding of criminal elements. Meanwhile, in West Bengal, BJP leader Jagannath Chatterjee voiced alarm at the increasing number of criminals seeking refuge in Kolkata and its adjoining areas. “Why did they flee Bihar and come to Bengal?” he asked, adding that Kolkata has effectively become a “safe corridor” for criminals fleeing from other states.
This is not the first time that New Town has featured prominently in high-profile criminal crackdowns. The township, with its modern infrastructure, transient population, and booming rental market, has increasingly been exploited by fugitives for anonymity and cover. In June 2021, two most-wanted gangsters from Punjab—Jaipal Singh Bhullar and Jaspreet Singh—were tracked and killed in a shootout at the Shapoorji Pallonji residential complex in New Town. They had been living under false identities and were wanted in over 50 cases across multiple states.
More recently, in July 2024, Majnu Ghazi, a notorious pirate from Bangladesh, was arrested from a flat in New Town where he had been hiding for nearly a year after entering India illegally. He was wanted for several armed robberies of fishermen in the Sundarbans. The arrest led to the capture of another Bangladeshi fugitive, Kamal Sheikh, following Ghazi’s interrogation. Both had been aided by a network that helped them obtain fake identities and settle in the area undetected.
The pattern is unmistakable and troubling: New Town’s rapid urbanization and its cosmopolitan, high-rise landscape are being co-opted by criminal networks as a preferred hideout zone. The arrests made this week in connection with Chandan Mishra’s murder once again highlight the urgent need for stricter tenant verification, inter-state intelligence coordination, and enhanced vigilance in high-density residential hubs.
As the investigation continues, the five arrested individuals from New Town will be presented before a local court in Kolkata, where Bihar Police are expected to seek their transit remand. Authorities are also focusing on uncovering the broader nexus of support that enabled the assailants to evade capture and cross state borders. Officials confirmed that leads from mobile tower locations played a key role in tracking the suspects to New Town.
Meanwhile, questions linger over how armed assailants could penetrate a private hospital’s ICU floor despite the presence of police personnel. SP Patna (Central), Diksha, acknowledged the lapse in security and confirmed that internal probes are underway to investigate potential complicity and systemic failures. “Investigators are certainly looking into how such a severe breach of protocol could take place in broad daylight,” she said.
The brazen nature of the attack, combined with the apparent ease with which the killers operated across state lines, has brought renewed focus on the need for more robust security mechanisms—not only within the prison and hospital systems, but also across inter-state law enforcement networks. As events unfold, both the criminal investigation and political pressure continue to intensify.
