3 arrested for extortion while posing as CID officers

Kolkata: Three persons including a woman have been arrested by Bidhannagar East police station for allegedly extorting money from several guest houses in Salt Lake, posing as Criminal Investigation Department (CID) officers.

The trio was remanded to 3 days police custody on Tuesday, after they were produced before the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate's (ACJM) Court, Bidhannagar.

According to police, the trio, identified as Barun Krishna Das, Rahul Chowdhury and Sharmistha Das, used to approach guest houses in Salt Lake posing as personnel from the office of the Divisional Detective Inspector (DDI) of Salt Lake, with intention of extortion. They used to demand money from the guest houses. If refused, the trio used to threaten the guest house owners and managers of sealing the establishments.

On January 4, the accused persons went to a guest house located at AL-207 and identified themselves as CID officers from the DDI office in Salt Lake. The trio allegedly demanded Rs 10,000 as monthly extortion from the owner, identified as Bappa Khatua.

They also threatened him that if he did not pay them the amount, they would bring allegation of keeping young girls there and would arrange a raid to seal the guest house. The accused persons also informed that they had done such an act to seal another guest house in CL block. Later, Khatua came to know that several other guest house owners had also faced such harassment from the trio recently. On Monday, he lodged a complaint with the Bidhannagar East police station against them. Police asked Khatua to call the trio to collect the money. When they came to the guest house, sleuths arrested them.