Real estate developer Abhijit Sarkar, who was beaten up by a group allegedly led by a local Trinamool Congress strongman in north Calcutta’s Sinthee on Friday, will be shifted to Chennai for medical care, his family has decided.

Sarkar’s chest pain has not subsided despite treatment at a nursing home here. He had a stent implant last year.

“Doctors have informed us about a clot that is coming in the way of blood circulation in the heart,” Sarkar’s cousin Tapas Majumder told Metro.

“The first two days he was on painkillers and didn’t realise anything. Now, the
pain seems to be unsettling. We have decided to shit him to Chennai,” Majumder added.

Close to midnight on Friday, a group of men barged into Sarkar’s office on Rajendra Roychowdhury Lane in Sinthee and allegedly beat him up before ransacking his office. The gang left after picking up close to ₹1 lakh from the cash box.

They allegedly attacked Sarkar after he refused to pay ₹5 lakh that Abhijit Mondal alias Rana, the gang’s leader and a Trinamool Congress leader from Cossipore, had demanded.

Sarkar said Mondal has been demanding the amount from him for some time for removing a tenant from a plot that he was developing. He alleged that Mondal tried hard so the tenant did not arrive at a settlement with him.

On Friday, however, a settlement was reached and the tenant was offered an alternative accommodation.

“Mondal wanted to broker the deal and collect ₹5 lakh. When that hope was gone, he turned up with his men and attacked me and ransacked the office,” Sarkar said hours after the attack, lying on his nursing home bed.

Mondal allegedly told Sarkar that he enjoyed immunity because of his proximity to top leaders. “He claimed to be close to (deputy mayor) Atin Ghosh.”

Two days after the incident, the police arrested Mondal and several associates.

On Tuesday, a police team collected a smashed television set from Sarkar’s office as part of evidence of the attack.

The day before, forensic experts had visited the office and collected samples.

Ghosh, also the Trinamool MLA from Cossipore-Belgachhia, has said he was not aware of Mondal’s alleged criminal activities in the Cossipore and Baranagar areas.

On Monday, Saugata Roy, the Trinamool MP from Dum Dum whose constituency covers Baranagar, said party workers and leaders will not have any truck with developers and
anti-socials.

Sarkar’s family members remained tentative even after this.

“The MP might have said something. But we don’t know if Mondal and his likes will return to trouble developers again once he walks out on bail,” Majumder said.