Ajay Mandal, the realtor who had a close shave when the car he was travelling in came under fire on Saturday afternoon, said he has received a third call from a man claiming to be Subodh Singh, a gangster lodged in a Bihar jail.
The man is said to have told Mandal that he wants to set up a syndicate of realtors in Titagarh, on the northern fringes of the city, and wants him to lead it.
Mandal said he rejected the offer and added that Saturday afternoon’s bullet shower on his Volvo car on BT Road, at Rathtala, was aimed at threatening him to accept the offer.
According to the realtor, the man claiming to be Singh made the first call on Saturday evening, when Mandal was at Belgharia police station. He apparently told Mandal that had he wanted, all the bullets that hit the car would have been pumped into him.
The second call came on Sunday afternoon. This time the caller asked the realtor to cooperate with him if he wanted to get protection from all goons. The third call came later on Sunday.
“I have considerable sway among realtors in Titagarh,” Mandal told Metro on Monday.
“Subodh called me to say he wanted me to lead a syndicate of realtors. He told me if I accept the offer I won’t have to pay protection money to anyone. Why? Because ‘tumhare picchey Subodh Singh khara hain (Subodh Singh will be beside you).”
Mandal said: “He wanted to threaten me to surrender and hence, the attack on my car. I told him I couldn’t accept the offer.”
Till late on Monday evening, the police could not trace the origin of the three calls. No one has been arrested yet in connection with Saturday’s attack.
“The man claiming to be Singh called Mandal using Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). VoIP service providers usually assign phone numbers dynamically. Which means the number showing on the caller ID may not even match the VoIP device being used,” said a senior police officer.
“Such calls are routed through a network of servers. So it becomes even more difficult to trace the origin of the calls.”
Mandal said Singh wanted to control major real estate projects in and around Titagarh, Barrackpore and Sodepur, where the businessman has developed a number of projects.
The police said Singh, lodged in Patna’s Beur Correctional Home, has multiple cases of extortion and murder against him.
“To start with, Subodh Singh wants me to control his real estate projects. Tomorrow, it may be something else. Why will I agree to such deals? If needed, I will fold up my business,” Mandal said.
“Earlier, I would walk down from Titagarh to Barrackpore close to midnight after attending functions and parties. I never felt scared. But now the situation has changed.”
A resident of Nonchandanpukur in Barrackpore, Mandal escaped unscathed on Saturday as two bike-borne men overtook his Volvo S90 at Rathtala on BT Road, barely a kilometre from Dunlop, and sprayed bullets on the left side of the car.
Mandal was sitting beside the driver, on the left of the vehicle.
On Monday, the Barrackpore Police Commissionerate posted two constables at Mandal’s house.
Mandal owns several showrooms of two-wheelers and also runs real-estate projects in Barrackpore, Sodepur and Titagarh in North 24-Parganas and Domjur in Howrah.
On Saturday, he said he was on his way to the Domjur project when bike-borne attackers fired at his car.
“It is difficult to run a business with two police constables around me. Business partners or even my relatives would feel intimidated seeing the constables,” Mandal said. “My daughter asked me why we have policemen around all the time.”
Mandal said his family was considering leaving Barrackpore for good and shifting to their ancestral home in Nadia’s Tehatta.
Barrackpore’s newly elected Trinamool Congress MP Partha Bhowmik called on the Mandals on Sunday night and assured them of all help.
