Subodh Singh, the Bihar-based gangster who was recently brought to Bengal from Beur jail in Patna, will now be questioned about his alleged role in orchestrating an attack on Barrackpore realtor Ajay Mandal, police said on Saturday.

A Barrackpore court remanded him in police custody for seven days.

On June 15, Mandal’s Volvo car was sprayed with bullets after two bike-borne men pulled up close to the vehicle near Rathtala More on the city’s northern fringes. The car’s left side was punctuated with bullet marks but Mandal and his driver escaped unhurt.

Within an hour of the attack, Mandal said he received a call from Subodh while he was speaking to senior officers at Belghoria police station. The gangster allegedly told Mandal to follow his line.

“Subodh has been demanding that I lead a syndicate of real estate development in and around Barrackpore on his behalf. ...Why would I work for Suobdh Singh?,” Mandal had told The Telegraph.

Besides Mandal, Subodh is alleged to have made extortion calls to at least two other businessmen based out of Barrackpore, including Ajay Bhakat, the owner of an eatery, and Anirban Das, owner of the D Bapi chain of biryani shops.

“We would now like to interrogate Subodh Singh about these alleged extortion calls,” said an officer of the Barrackpore Commissionerate.

While in CID custody a few weeks ago, officers said it surfaced that Subodh had started building his network across parts of North 24-Parganas since 2007 when he put up at a place in Sodepur, some 17km from Calcutta, CID officers said. “This gang later went on to commit at least two dacoities in Madhyamgram and Baguiati,” said an officer.

Almost a decade later Subodh returned to Bengal, this time in Howrah’s Bally where he stayed at a rented accommodation for close to a fortnight, officers said.

While in Bally, Subodh picked up a few of his aides before robbing a shop in Hirapur near Asansol.

Officers said immediately after committing the crime, Subodh left for Bihar with one of his aides in tow.