Police probing allegations of extortion made by a one-time alleged extortionist, Jishu Jain, said on Wednesday they have started collecting digital evidence in connection with the complaint lodged with Parnasree policestation.
Officers said the first step was to corroborate Jain’s allegations. Sources said investigators were in the process of collecting call records and CCTV footage that could preliminarily support the allegations.
According to Jain, 47, who had multiple criminal cases against him at one time and now jointly runs a real estate developer’s business with his wife Baishakhi, a man named Joydeep Sarkar had allegedly made an extortion call demanding ₹50,000 on behalf of a local club in Behala as “club development fund”.
Jain alleged that when he had expressed helplessness over not being able to donate such a big amount, he was pressured.
Police sources said they would validate if Sarkar had called Jain through the call records. The police said they were looking for CCTV footage of the site where Jain is developing a building on a 3.5 cottah land. Jain has also alleged that labourers at the site were threatened, forcing them to leave the spot out of fear.
Deputy commissioner (southwest) Rahul De said the police received the complaint only two days ago and the necessary investigation procedure has started.
A senior officer at the Kolkata Police headquarters said it would take a few days to complete the process of collecting evidence.
“The next course of the investigation will be decided based on the findings. Both the accused and the victim would be examined and if any new evidence emerges, that, too, would be collected,” said the officer.
An FIR under sections of extortion, criminal intimidation and trespassing has been started.