Three incidents of crime over the past fortnight — a heist at a jewellery store in Raniganj that culminated in a gunfight, a robbery at gunpoint at a jewellery store in Howrah’s Domjur; and a hail of bullets on a businessman’s car near Calcutta — could have one common thread, police said.

The link is Subodh Singh, a gangster lodged in Beur jail in Patna.

Singh allegedly orchestrated the June 10 raid by a gang of seven on the jewellery shop in Raniganj in West Burdwan.

The subsequent shootout with the police foiled the robbery and left Sonu Singh, the alleged mastermind, with a bullet injury.

Sonu, an alleged associate of Singh, was later arrested in Jharkhand’s Giridih and admitted to the Burdwan Medical College and Hospital.

Two days later, a gang of four looted a jewellery shop in Howrah’s Domjur.

The members arrived on two motorcycles, held the shop owner and the staff, including a guard, at gunpoint and took away gold ornaments.

“As part of the investigation, a team from the Howrah police went to Burdwan and showed footage of CCTV cameras at the Domjur store to Sonu at the hospital. According to Sonu, the robbers were all members of Subodh Singh’s gang,” said a senior police officer.

A resident of Nalanda, Singh was arrested in 2018 following an encounter, the police said. He has allegedly been running his gang from jail since.

The information available with the police suggests that Singh and his men were involved in multiple criminal cases in Odisha, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Bengal.

“Singh’s primary interest is in gold and gold ornaments and he prefers minimal violence in achieving his aim. His instruction to his gang members is not to fire unless forced to,” said a senior police officer who is tracking the three cases in Bengal.

In November 2022, Singh’s gang had allegedly pulled off one of its biggest heists when it looted ornaments worth ₹8 crore from a store in Katni in Madhya Pradesh.

In May 2023, a group of armed robbers had entered a jewellery store in Barrackpore and opened fire, killing the owner’s son and leaving the owner and an employee injured.

“I’ve been told that Subodh Singh’s gang was involved in that robbery,” said Ajay Mandal, the Barrackpore realtor whose Volvo car was sprayed with bullets on BT Road on Saturday afternoon.

Later that day, Mandal said, Singh had called him and said that had he wanted, all the bullets would have entered the realtor’s body.

“I had no clue about Singh’s existence until about a year back, when some of his aides turned up and said dada wanted to talk to me. I told them if he had to talk, he should come down and meet me.”

Mondal, who owns several two-wheeler showrooms and has developed real estate projects in Sodepur, Barrackpore, Titagarh and Domjur, said: “My family is still scared. We are yet to decide whether to continue with my business in the face of such threats and attacks from Subodh Singh.

“The police have offered two constables for my protection but how long can one operate with cops breathing down the neck?”