In less than 24 hrs of arrest, 10 more extortion cases, plaints of land-grab filed against Debraj

Kolkata: Less than 24 hours after former Bidhannagar councillor Debraj Chakraborty’s dramatic arrest in Purulia on Wednesday in an extortion case, more complaints piled up against him.Anandapur resident Sekhar Kanti Basu, a retired deputy SP, accused him of using his clout to stop police action in a cheating complaint in 2023 against two directors of a private security agency who allegedly forced him to hand over his retired police ID card by promising him a monthly salary of Rs 20,000, bonuses and a directorship in a proposed company.

Basu claimed he was cheated of nearly Rs 18 lakh. Basu alleged that when he had approached the Baguiati PS with a written complaint, an officer told him Chakraborty had instructed them not to register a case.Chakraborty’s arrest was based on an extortion complaint, lodged by a promoter, Abhijit Saha. “For every project, I had to pay him Rs 2-3 lakh, and the demand went up to Rs 40 lakh before the election. After much deliberation, I paid Rs 30 lakh in cash to Chakraborty’s associate and local councillor Manish Mukherjee.

Only after Mukherjee called Chakraborty was I allowed to resume work,” Saha claimed.Another promoter, Kishore Halder, claimed Chakraborty’s associate Samaresh assaulted him after he refused to pay “extortion money”. “Samaresh was arrested after much delay but secured bail quickly. Only after the change in regime did I lodge a fresh complaint against both Samaresh and Debraj. Both have been arrested,” Halder said.

Even as Chakraborty was being interrogated at the Baguiati PS, more complaints were lodged. Police said they received extortion complaints from at least 10 promoters, besides multiple allegations of land-grab and other illegal dealings. Police also questioned Chakraborty’s wife and former MLA Aditi Munshi for nearly six hours on Thursday. They searched three properties linked to the couple and seized a laptop from an office in Baguiati.Jayati Patra, a resident, claimed Chakraborty’s associates had harassed her family over an ancestral property to such an extent that she attempted suicide. Another resident, Soma Dutta, alleged she was advised to approach Chakraborty after failing to obtain possession of a resale flat in Kestopur. “He met me but took no action. Instead, he accepted money from the flat owner and I never got possession,” she claimed.

Prasenjit Roychowdhury, who lodged a complaint of criminal intimidation and assault against Chakraborty, questioned his rapid accumulation of wealth. “From driving a hatchback to owning multiple SUVs—where did all this money come from in just 10 years?” he said.Opposing Chakraborty’s bail on Thursday, state counsel Bivas Chatterjee told the court that cops would book him in two more major cases, including one involving a syndicate. “One case is based on a complaint by MLA Tarunjyoti Tiwari, alleging coercive land transactions, undervaluation of properties, concealment of assets, suspicious financial dealings and false or incomplete disclosures in the election affidavit of co-accused Aditi Munshi,” Chatterjee said.