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Bengal firm seeks Mamata Banerjee’s intervention; alleges kidnapping, extortion
HT saw a copy of the mail and decided not to name the TMC legislator because the person in question could not be contacted for his comments despite several efforts
Purti Realty, a well-known real estate group based in West Bengal, on Friday alleged that three of its engineers were kidnapped from Hooghly district after the company received extortion demands from a man who claimed to be a “close aide” of a Trinamool Congress (TMC) legislator from the district.
Mahesh Agarwal, managing director of Purti Realty, which is carrying out two projects worth about ₹1000 crore in Hooghly, wrote an e-mail to chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday while she was on a political tour of Goa and sought her intervention.
One of these projects is a logistics hub of online retail giant Amazon and the other is a resort of the Marriott group, Agarwal mentioned in his mail to Banerjee.
Agarwal alleged that a man who identified himself as Rajib Basu Roy and claimed to be a close aide of a TMC legislator from the district, called up and demanded 50,000 T-shirts during the recent Durga puja.
Agarwal wrote that Basu Roy hung up the phone when he was told that if one T-shirt costs ₹70, the company would incur an expenditure of around ₹35 lakh.
“He instantly disconnected the telephone and messaged us for 5000 T-shirts,” wrote Agarwal.
HT saw a copy of the mail and decided not to name the TMC legislator because the person in question could not be contacted for his comments despite several efforts.
HT talked to Agarwal on Friday night. He said he had lodged a formal complaint with the police.
“Yesterday (28-10-2021) he entered our site and asked for extortion amount and threatened [that] if not paid by 29-10-2021, he will enter our site and show us his muscle and political power,” wrote Agarwal.
“Today, at about 9.00-9.30 am he entered our site in a white Scorpio and started beating our men with sticks and bamboos and kidnapped our three men (engineers) namely Piyush Kanti Poral, Tanmoy Barik and Sudip Sarkar and post which, he has sent information to us to bring money and take away our men,” Agarwal wrote in the mail.
He said that the white SUV had a Jharkhand registration number and the alleged kidnapper wanted the ransom money to be sent to a hotel located on the Durgapur Expressway. The hotel’s name was mentioned in the mail.
“Respected Madam, we, with folded hands, request your good self to look into the matter and save the investment environment of the state initiated by you. These type of local goons are spoiling the image and creating fear factor for West Bengal’s peace loving environment,” Agarwal wrote.
Locket Chatterjee, the Bharatiya Janata Party Lok Sabha member from Hooghly district, took up the issue and targeted the chief minister.
“A glaring example of how a businessman became a victim of extortion. His employees got kidnapped! It shows how Mamata Banerjee is running the extortion industry in West Bengal with the help of her MLA’s and party cadres. The prime reason why Bengal reeks of backwardness!” Chatterjee tweeted on Friday night.
Headquartered in south Kolkata, Purti Realty has so far completed 24 residential and commercial projects in Bengal. These include some high-end housing projects and shopping malls.
