Councillor Anindya Chatterjee, who was arrested on Monday, had allegedly fixed Rs 10 lakh as extortion money for any sort of construction on a plot of one cottah.
After receiving the information of his arrest, some people who own plots at BD block in Salt Lake but had failed to undertake construction work as the Councillor and his close associates had allegedly demanded extortion money. One of such person is Gautam Chatterjee.
Chatterjee said that his 70-year-old aunt Jamuna Mondal owns a plot at BD-386. They had plan of constructing house on the plot and initiated the necessary process for mutation. When the process for mutation work was going on, they had taken steps to construct boundary walls. But they had to stop the work after being approached by the associates of the Councillor. They demanded Rs 20 lakh for construction of building on the plot of around 2 cottah.
Chatterjee said: “I was told that the norm here is to give Rs 10 lakh for construction on one cottah of land.” Finding themselves in a helpless situation, Chatterjee approached the Councillor. But it was of no help as he had refused to pay heed to their requests. “He even didn’t care when we told him of moving to the police as it was a one kind of torture on them,” he said.
Chatterjee had even moved to the police and informed the police of the situation. “After getting information that they had moved to the police, the Councillor had contacted them over phone and told that they may go to any person but the amount will not come down from Rs 10 lakh per cottah,” said Chatterjee adding that he had even threatened us as well.
After knowing that the Councillor was arrested on similar charges, Chatterjee came to Salt Lake on Wednesday morning. He said that he has faith in the state government and the administration. He is hopeful of starting the construction work on the plot owned by his aunt without facing any further trouble. He said that he would also lodge a complaint against the Councillor with the police.
It may be mentioned that Chatterjee is the third person to bring allegations against the Councillor for demanding extortion money after two other residents of Salt Lake Santosh Kumar Lodh and Arunabha Mukherjee.