Two men have been arrested from Jharkhand for their alleged involvement in a firing inside the office of a coal trading company in Ballygunge in south Kolkata on January 8.
Avinas Kumar Raut, 23, and Chandan Yadav, 23, both from Deogarh in Jharkhand, were arrested early on Sunday from their homes and were brought to Kolkata later in the day. Police said both have links with gangster and extortionist Aman Sahoo, who is lodged at Pakur jail in Jharkhand.
“It appears they have a connection with Aman Sahoo. But we are verifying whether they were following his instructions or have been hired by someone else to extort money from the coal trading company in the heart of Kolkata,” said an investigator.
Sahoo has multiple police cases against him in Jharkhand and is accused of extorting money from businessmen and coal traders in and around Jharkhand.
An officer said the police were not ruling out Sahoo’s involvement in the extortion attempt from inside the jail.
“Yadav has many criminal cases against him. He was once in jail in an attempt-to-murder case. At present he is part of a gang that extorts money from coal traders,” said a senior officer.
Two men - whom cops later identified as Raut and Yadav - had walked into a six-storey building on Sarat Bose Road that houses the office of the coal trading company and fired a bullet. The bullet did not hit anyone.
The police said CCTV footage shows two people in jeans and jackets entering the building and taking the stairs to reach the second floor.
They are also seen coming out and leaving on a bike, said an officer of the detective department.
“The two had approached a guard, asking for a director of the company. When he wanted to know who they were, one of them brandished a gun. The guard gave the location of the office,” said the officer.
Based on a written complaint by an official of the coal trading company, officers of Ballygunge police station drew up a case against “unknown persons” under sections 387 (extortion) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code and under the arms act.
The police said the gang members would be interrogated to find out whether they were involved in any other extortion attempt.