Arrested councillor defrauded 950 hawkers of Rs 3 crore: Cops

Kolkata: Kasba councillor Sushanta Ghosh, who faces four separate cases of extortion and cheating — the last one getting registered on June 15 – had defrauded 950 hawkers of Anandapur and Kasba of no less than Rs 2.5 to Rs 3 crore.Anti-Fraud Section of the detective dept, which produced Ghosh at Alipore Court on Thursday after arresting him in Pipili near Puri on Monday, has claimed before a local court that Ghosh led the multi-crore racket targeting street vendors, operating under the guise of a sophisticated, chit-fund-style cooperative scheme. According to Alipore police court public prosecutor, under the guise of an official footpath beautification and redevelopment drive, vulnerable hawkers were initially evicted from their original places of business.To drain the hawkers’ resources without raising immediate alarms, the accused operated a parallel collection system similar to a recurring chit-fund scam. Hawkers were coerced into paying hefty sums through structured periodic installments, effectively forcing them to buy back their own livelihoods under the illusion of securing permanent commercial tenure.The cops claimed that to secure permission to return, the syndicate forced them to pay substantial “clearance fees” ranging between Rs 50,000 and Rs 70,000 each.

Following this, newly constructed tin stalls on the pavement were sold back to the victims at exorbitant prices ranging from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 8 lakh per stall.To legitimize this extortion, the racket prepared and used highly convincing forged govt documents to pass themselves off as personnel authorized by competent authorities.Cops claimed that a scrutiny of the syndicate’s operational network has revealed massive financial anomalies.“Recent raids, including a house search on June 17, yielded ledger books detailing the systematic collection and internal distribution of the extorted wealth among the committee members. Also, scrutiny of the accused’s bank accounts has exposed a flurry of suspicious monetary transactions and substantial cash deposits matching the timeline of the scam,” claimed an officer.Public prosecutor Sourin Ghosal said the ongoing probe is at a crucial stage. The police emphasized that releasing the accused at this juncture would severely jeopardize the probe, potentially leading to extensive witness intimidation, destruction of the electronic money trail, and collusion with absconding associates.