Abhijit Mondal, alias Rana, the prime accused in the attack on a real estate developer in Sinthee on Friday night, has been arrested.

Mondal had allegedly led a group of men that barged into the office of the realtor Abhijit Sarkar in Rajendra Roy Chowdhury Lane after he refused to pay the prime accused ₹5 lakh.

Police said Mondal was picked up from Cossipore early on Sunday.

The gang led by Mandal had allegedly beat up the realtor, broken a television
set and left with around ₹1 lakh.

CCTV footage has emerged that shows how the men barged into the office and assaulted the developer, who has been admitted to hospital.

Mondal, who is believed to be close to the deputy mayor of Calcutta, Atin Ghosh,
had allegedly mentioned Ghosh’s name while demanding ₹5 lakh from realtor Sarkar.

“Abhijit Mondal has been demanding ₹5 lakh from me to remove a tenant from the plot which I am developing. He was trying hard so that the tenant didn’t reach any settlement with me,” Sarkar had told reporters from his hospital bed on Saturday.

“He claimed to be close to Atin Ghosh. He dropped Ghosh’s name and that of Jayanth Singh (the Trinamool strongman of Ariadaha who is now in custody). He kept saying that no one could touch him,” Sarkar had said.

Ghosh, also the Trinamool MLA from Cossipore-Belgachhia, said he wasn’t aware why his name had been dragged into the matter. “I would like to instruct the police to take strong steps against the accused,” Ghosh had said on Saturday.

Calls to Ghosh from this newspaper after the arrest of Mondal went unanswered.

A resident of Gopal Chatterjee Road in Cossipore, Mondal is a popular face in the locality and close to several Trinamool functionaries in north Calcutta, the police said.

With the arrest on Sunday, the number of persons behind bars in the case rose to three. Two persons were arrested on Saturday.

All three have been booked under the sections related to extortion, causing grievous hurt, mischief and criminal conspiracy, the police said.