Santosh Mitra Square, near Lebutala in Bowbazar, is named after Santosh Kumar Mitra — born in Kolkata on 15 August 1900, and executed by British police at Hijli Detention Camp on 16 September 1931, aged 31, alongside fellow prisoner Tarakeswar Sengupta. Mitra had joined the Indian National Congress before turning to more direct resistance after the Non-Cooperation Movement was called off; he founded the Swaraj Sevak Sangha and was arrested in 1923 in connection with the Shankharitola Murder Case. He had graduated from the University of Calcutta in 1919 and gone on to complete an M.A. and an LL.B.
The square that carries his name has, in the decades since, become one of the city's most reliable venues for large-scale replica pandals — builds that recreate real landmarks in painstaking detail, such as a 2024 pandal modelled on the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya. It's also served, at various points in its history, as a site for political rallies, a role that sits alongside its identity as a Puja venue.