A businessman with links to a jailed gangster is understood to have threatened an activist with abduction after he complained to the deputy commissioner about a dubious land deal in Birsanagar, the same area where a lawyer’s murder earlier this week pointed to the involvement of the local land mafia.

Social activist Jairam Singh Munda (34) said he received the threat hours after he had lodged a petition against businessman Sanjay Palsania, alleging his involvement in questionable land deals in Birsanagar. Munda met deputy commissioner Suraj Kumar again on Saturday after which Kumar directed police to look into the matter.

Inspector Manoj Kumar Thakur of Sidhgora thana, who has begun investigations, said Munda provided the district administration information about attempted land-grabbing at the behest of Palsania, who is a close associate of gangster Akhilesh Singh, presently lodged in Dumka Central Jail.

"From the petition submitted by Munda with the DC’s office, we gathered that the threat came as a sequel to the act of grabbing government land at Birsanagar. Later, we talked to Munda who said that Palsania had built a residential complex at Zone No 2 in Birsanagar on government land,” Thakur told The Telegraph Online.

This apart, Thakur said, Palsania had allegedly fenced-off parts of the government land at more than one place in Birsanagar.

The police officer said since Palsania (42) was physically handicapped, they did not summon him for questioning. Instead, he deputed a sub-inspector to question him at his house in Telco Gwala Bustee.

"The police will grill Palsania who owns a mini-steel plant at Chandil, besides other businesses in the city on the basis of an audio clip that Munda has provided to the administration as evidence of the abduction threat," Thakur said.

Palsania was arrested in 2016 for business links with gangster Akhilesh Singh, who was arrested first, from Gurgaon, by the East Singhbhum district police the same year. Singh’s assets were seized and his bank accounts frozen.

The police inspector pointed out that while the district administration was looking into the land-grab allegations, police was concentrating solely on the abduction threat. Findings of both the investigations would be corroborated before taking necessary action against Palsania.

Lawyer Prakash Yadav (29) was hacked to death near his house at Zone 1-B in Birsanagar on Tuesday, the murder pointing to Birsanagar’s murky world of land deals, blackmail and low-level political involvement.