On a humid Thursday evening in late July 2026, inside the air-conditioned workout hall of the Renaissance Fitness Studio off National Highway 2 in Burdwan, West Bengal, gym-goers were completing their usual evening routines alongside off-duty police officers who lived in the gated complex. Among them was a soft-spoken 24-year-old who told neighbours he was a remote IT professional. He was mid-workout when six plainclothes officers from the West Bengal Police Special Task Force (STF) walked in, surrounded him, and quietly escorted him to a waiting unmarked vehicle.