Bengal’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID) wants to question Subodh Singh, the Bihar-based gangster who is allegedly involved in at least two dacoities in Bengal and has made extortion calls to several businessmen.

The CID brought Singh from Patna’s Beur jail on Sunday and produced him at a court in Asansol on Monday. The court remanded him in judicial custody till Wednesday.

The CID told the police in Asansol that the gangster threatened two of its officers on the way to the correctional home in Asansol.

“A case against Singh has been drawn up with Asansol South police station based on a complaint by the CID,” said a police officer.

CID officers said it was crucial to get Singh in their custody after his alleged involvement surfaced in a string of crimes across the state, including threatening a Barrackpore-based realtor after spraying bullets on his car in Rathtala on BT Road a fortnight back.

He also allegedly made threatening calls to the owner of a Biryani chain owner and the owner of a Barrackpore-based eatery on Friday.

Metro reported on June 20 how Singh was allegedly linked to heists in two jewellery shops in Ranigunj near Asansol and Domjur in Howrah.

Singh is also the prime accused in the murder of BJP youth leader Manish Shukla in Titagarh in the city’s northern fringes in 2020.

On Friday, Tapas Bhakat, an eatery-owner in Barrackpore said he received extortion calls from someone claiming to be Subodh Singh.

“Singh told me if he wished he could murder me even in the presence of security guards. He said Arjun Singh, (BJP leader from Barrackpore) had asked him to
murder me,” Bhakat told ABP Ananda.

“The recording is with me. I have handed it over to the state administration.”

Singh refuted the charge and challenged the police to find out whether Bhakat had met Subodh Singh in jail a year back or not.

“One has to submit an Aadhar card to meet an inmate in jail. The records should be there. Now Bhakat is being instructed to speak against me and link me with Subodh Singh.”

A resident of Nalada, Singh and his gang have been operating out of jail since his arrest by the Bihar police
in 2018.

Subodh and his men are involved in criminal cases across several states, including Odisha, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, the police said.