The glass pane shattered by the first bullet and (below) Serajul Haque in his shop. Pictures by Bishwarup Dutta

Not a single rubber bullet was fired from a police rifle in Singur on Sunday but three shots from an extortionist’s revolver shattered the morning calm near New Market.

The first bullet missed the target — shopowner Serajul Haque — and shattered a glass pane of his store off Free School Street. The second, fired from point-blank range, sailed off the mark as Haque dived for cover. The third was fired in the air by the goon to keep bystanders at bay as he fled down a lane.

A preliminary probe revealed that 45-year-old Haque had decided not to cough up the Rs 30,000 demanded by local goon Bachcha Mahtab as extortion money.

Haque set up a multi-utility store at 20 Marquis Street six months ago and refused to pay Mahtab, who has been running an extortion racket in the area despite being in jail for the past three months.

“Sunday’s attack on the shopowner was a fallout of his refusal to pay the extortion money,” said an officer in the New Market police station.

The attack on Haque was carried out around 9.40am, minutes after he had raised the shop shutters. There were two customers in the 8 feet-by-10-feet shop when the assailant entered.

“I was busy at the photocopy machine when a man in his mid-20s came in, clad in a white shirt and black trousers. He shouted ‘Khokonbhai’, whipped out a revolver and fired at me. The bullet missed me and hit a glasspane,” recounted Haque, also known as Khokon.

“He then moved closer to me, took aim and was about to fire again when I dived to the ground. I lay there quietly, too scared to move,” he added.

Being a Sunday morning, most shops in the area were shut though some eateries were bustling with the breakfast crowd. Having missed with his second shot as well, Haque’s assailant hurried out of the shop and fired another round in the air.

The sparse crowd quickly melted away, allowing him a free run.

“I was walking down Free School Street with my wife when I heard a gunshot and saw people running for cover. We rushed back to our hotel,” said Alamgir Hossain, one of the many Bangladeshi nationals occupying hotel rooms in the area.

Police pickets were put up but till Sunday afternoon the New Market zone remained tense.

“This has once again blown the lid off the extortion racket in the area. Everyone knows the goons behind this terror raj but the police refuse to act,” alleged a shopowner on Free School Street.

Haque’s predicament highlights police apathy in this shop-eatery-hotel zone where money and muscle rule. “I had lodged two general diaries with the New Market police station seeking action against the extortionists. But no one even bothered to investigate,” alleged the shopowner.

Haque recounted how Bachcha Mahtab had hounded him before being booked for a shootout and jailed in May. “I had refused to bow to his threats and offered him Rs 100 to buy some sweets instead of coughing up the extortion amount.”

Last month, a person came to his shop, introduced himself as S. Singh, an employee of Presidency jail, and handed over a letter from Mahtab.

“The message, written in Hindi, was that I must pay Rs 30,000 or shut shop. I kept the letter with me and asked the man to leave,” Haque said.

Last week, another person turned up at his shop to deliver the same message from Mahtab — this time verbally and in Bengali. When Haque refused to respond, he left in a huff.

“An investigation in on. The gangster who fired at the shopowner is yet to be arrested,” said Damayanti Sen, the deputy commissioner of police, central.