The man who allegedly hatched the plot to kill Trinamool Congress councillor Sushanta Ghosh in Kasba had swapped the number plate of the scooter the attackers used with a fake one, police said.

Gulzar Khan, the alleged mastermind, had even replaced the SIM cards of the hired assassins with new ones, the police said.

Khan had bought the old two-wheeler recently, an officer working on the case said, adding they were trying to identify the man who sold the two-wheeler to the accused.

Khan was arrested in Burdwan’s Galsi on Saturday and produced in a city court on Sunday. He has been remanded in police custody.

Ghosh, the councillor of Ward 108 of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation and chairman of borough XII, was speaking to acquaintances in front of his house in Kasba’s Rajdanga on Friday night when a man, whom the police later identified as Yuvraj Singh, got off a scooter and tried to fire at him. But the gun did not fire.

The man tried to flee on the two-wheeler but was caught by Ghosh’s acquaintances.

“Singh was brought to a place near bridge number 4 in Park Circus on Friday evening, where a man was waiting for him on the scooter. Khan trailed the two in a cab,” an officer said.

“From Rajdanga, he planned to reach Bondel Gate after the operation and hand the two to a trusted man.”

Khan allegedly hired a gangster named Iqbal for the attempt on the councillor’s life. Police sources said Iqbal is a member of the Pappu Chaudhury gang of Bihar.

Pappu and his men have been responsible for a series of abductions in the neighbouring state and there is even a reward for his arrest, officers of Kolkata Police said.

Iqbal had put Yuvraj Singh and two others on the job following a deal with Khan, the police said.

Khan reportedly told the police that he had hatched the murder plot because the councillor had allegedly grabbed a 2,000sqft godown he owned in Anandapur’s Gulshan Colony in Ward 108.

On Monday, some residents of Gulshan Colony said the murder attempt was aimed at thwarting the councillor’s efforts to protect a water body from land sharks.

They alleged that Zulqar Nain Ali, a resident of Gulshan Colony, had been trying to fill a part of the water body which local farmers use for fishing. Some even gathered outside Ali’s house during the day to protest.

Ali denied any links with the attack on the councillor.

“In 2021, after Sushanta Ghosh was elected councillor, he began taking steps to ensure that the water body was not filled illegally,” said a resident. “Dada was targeted because he came in the way of land sharks who have been trying to fill the water body.”

Ali said he wasn’t sure why his name was dragged into all this.

“I bought the land with valid papers. There is no dispute on the nature of the land. I am being unnecessarily drawn into the controversy. I did sell flats and the godown to Gulzar Khan. That’s it,” Ali told reporters.

Ghosh said on Monday that attempts had been made over the past decade and a half to fill parts of the water body. He said he resisted the move after becoming the councillor.

“The 2,000sq ft plot with the water body belongs to the state government. As long as I am the councillor of Ward 108, I will resist all attempts to fill up this water body, even if it means facing another attack,” Ghosh told reporters.

Calcutta mayor Firhad Hakim had earlier questioned the police’s intelligence gathering and asked how arms from Bihar were entering Bengal. He urged the police to “act now”.

On Monday, Saugata Roy, Trinamool MP from Dum Dum, echoed similar concerns. “The police get their salary. They have done good work during the Puja. But how come 9mm pistols are reaching the city from Bihar? This is a cause of worry,” Roy said at a meeting of party workers.