Another Trinamool KMC councillor Sushmita Bhattacharya Chatterjee in police lock-up

KOLKATA: Sushmita Bhattacharya Chatterjee, councillor of KMC ward 63 and borough VII chairperson, and her husband, Salil Chatterjee, an insurance agent, have been arrested on charges of extorting from a senior citizen in Watgunge.

“Allegations include extortion, threat and cheating of around Rs 30 lakh from an elderly person,” said a senior cop at Lalbazar.

Chatterjee became the eighth sitting KMC councillor to be arrested in the past month, even as a ninth is now on the run.

A 64-year-old retired railway employee lodged a cop plaint on June 5 at the Watgunge PS, now turned into an FIR, against a sitting KMC councillor-cum-borough chairperson and her husband, accusing them of a multi-year campaign of financial extortion, brutal physical assault and death threats. The complainant, Amit Roy, claimed his daughter too was threatened.

Those close to Chatterjee claimed that these claims are “politically motivated”.

According to the plaint, the couple allegedly capitalised on Roy’s vulnerability following the demise of his mother and wife in 2020. Roy alleged that the accused coerced him into signing multiple insurance policies under the guise of safe investments. Over the years, the senior citizen was allegedly forced to shell out over Rs 12 lakh in premiums and an additional Rs 13 lakh in arbitrary cash transfers and inflated household repair bills, pushing him into severe financial distress.

The ordeal escalated on Jan 29, when unknown individuals, acting as goons for the accused, allegedly visited Roy’s residence and tried to forcibly transfer his insurance policies in the name of Chatterjee.

The intimidation allegedly turned physical on March 3 around 8.30 am at the Kidderpore Market. Salil allegedly cornered Roy, launched a volley of highly offensive and defamatory abuses targeting Roy’s deceased wife and mother, and repeatedly slapped and punched him. The assault left Roy with a severe ear injury that kept him bedridden for over 15 days.

“He threatened to kill me and boasted that the body would be buried so deep that no one could trace it,” Roy stated in his plaint. He added that the accused demanded a fresh ransom of Rs 4 lakh.

Despite Roy approaching the Watgunge PS after the assault, the cops allegedly only logged a GD.

Roy further alleged that when he attempted to seek further police intervention, Salil mocked him, claiming that senior police officials “fell at his wife’s feet” and would not protect him. On April 17, Roy was allegedly threatened again at the market, with Salil warning that bringing his daughter to the house would result in her getting harmed. He allegedly boasted that his wife, a heavyweight Trinamool neta, could deploy a 100-man mob to vandalise his home.

Following a recent eye surgery on May 14, Roy officially sent the complaint via email and speed post to the KP commissioner and Joint CP (crime), urging them to register an FIR under sections of BNS dealing with extortion, criminal breach of trust and criminal intimidation.