The new faces that have emerged in the city’s underworld have left the police clueless about the recent spate of dacoities, abductions and snatchings in the Burrabazar-Posta-Jorasanko belt, according to officers of the detective department and local police stations.

“The new criminals have formed separate gangs and there is very little about them in our record book. Our informers too are in the dark,” admitted an official of the anti-rowdy squad of the detective department. Twelve cases of robberies in shops and 12 cases of snatchings have been recorded in the past six months. Three murders and two abductions have also taken place. Some abductions were never registered as the victims’ families chose to pay ransom.

The probe into the robberies in Burrabazar revealed nothing. Sleuths investigating the abduction and subsequent killing of 25-year-old businessman Shambhu Choudhury from in front of his Rabindra Sarani office failed to find a single lead. Deputy commissioner of the detective department Soumen Mitra, who is in charge of the probe, said the case would be cracked “soon”. But he could not reveal the motive behind the killing.

Last Tuesday, a medicine shop owner, Mohammed Abbas, was abducted. A deal was struck for Rs 1 lakh. Fortunately, officers of Jorasanko police station rescued Abbas and arrested Mohammad Asif, one of the abductors. But Akbar, the mastermind who rules a gang in south Calcutta, is still at large.

According to police, some gangsters active in the port area have shifted to the Burrabazar-Posta zone. “They targeted the business district as crores circulate here every day. Two years ago, snatching cash from employees of commercial firms was the major crime in these areas. But for the past one year, gangsters have been raiding shops and escaping with money at gunpoint,” said an official of Jorasanko police station.

Apart from the port mafia, accomplices of former underworld bosses like Gabbar, Gudda and Nadeem have emerged as the new crimelords. “The sidekicks of jailed criminals have become the bosses now,” said an officer.