A cop and a storyteller, a policeman and a narrator, a committed law enforcer and a chronicler…Unheard of. But beyond the confines of the printed word lies a name that is immensely popular amidst us Kolkattans and this teller of tales is none other than Supratim Sarkar, a 1997 batch officer of the Indian Police Service, who is presently Additional Commissioner of Police, Kolkata.
An avid reader and an erstwhile journalist, his passions include cricket and ancient history. An alumnus of Presidency College, Sarkar has done tremendous work by painstakingly choosing some spine-chilling detective encounters of the Kolkata Police and writing it down in a book named ‘Goyendapeeth Lalbazar’. This book, a first-of-its-kind initiative from the Kolkata Police, was made available in this year’s International Kolkata Book Fair. The book has been officially unveiled by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
Sarkar is the main architect of this collection of thrilling encounters of the Kolkata Police dotted with 12 incredible murder mysteries. The book, published by Ananda Publishers with a preface by Commissioner of Police Rajiv Kumar, has a backdrop when years back Kolkata Police started to make their hair-raising stories public through a segment ‘Rahasya Robibaar’ on their website. A lot of accolades started pouring in and the section became an instant hit.
The book also is available in English version named ‘Murder in the City’ from Speaking Tiger publication and translated by Swati Sengupta.
According to Sarkar, “As we are aware, in films and literature we have been somehow stereotyped that police always fail to solve a case or introspect due to which a larger than life private detective is introduced and he takes charge to solve the mystery in a very dramatic fashion. I am not trying to defame the likes of Feluda, Byomkesh Bakshi or anyone but trying to portray a few real life heroes who worked or still works with the Kolkata Police and have solved many cases with their good judgement and brilliance. The book is all about those unsung heroes who definitely will leave anyone spellbound.”
“Sarkar is the main architect of this collection of thrilling encounters of the Kolkata Police dotted with 12 incredible murder mysteries”
How difficult was it to transition from being a police officer to becoming an author? “Each case took me a week’s time to write and transform into a crime thriller. Each time a sensitive issue cropped up in the city, I would be extra cautious to deal with things properly. I did not want anyone to say I neglected my work, so I worked for an extra hour to strike a balance between my duty and passion. I owe it all to my boss Rajiv Kumar, who constantly encouraged me,” he says.
In fact, his job gives him an extra edge over other crime writers. “I am fortunate that I have access to certain things that only an insider can have. And I don’t mean this only in terms of objects, such as documents, materials or evidence. As an investigation progresses, the team spends hours and hours simply talking about the case and the outcome of those conversations cannot always be documented. I get to see the twists and turns so closely that actually find space in my stories when I’m writing them down. Not every author gets to see things this closely before he sits to write down.”
Sarkar doesn’t consider the process of writing thrillers based on real-life incidents as being a grey area in terms of ethics. “Real life can often be far more thrilling than anything we can imagine and the incidents I write about are so riveting that all I need to do is report them faithfully. The occasional inputs in terms of speech of a certain character, for instance, come from my real-life experience. Certain reactions, certain speech patterns are universal,” he explains. Indeed, thus goes the saying, truth is stranger than fiction!
