Englishbazar municipality chairman and former Bengal minister Krishnendu Narayan Choudhury purportedly received a “threat call” from “D company” on Friday.

The “D company” is a name coined for an organised crime syndicate led by Dawood Ibrahim.

Choudhury said he had received the call at 10.40am on Friday. The caller allegedly introduced himself as "Pradip" of the "D company" and asked the civic chief in Hindi to pay him "two peti" cash by Saturday morning, failing which Choudhury and his family members would be harmed.

"The caller even asked me why I had not read his WhatsApp messages sent to me earlier. After the call was disconnected, I immediately checked WhatsApp and found two messages sent from the same number in the past two days asking me for 'two peti' cash," Choudhury told the media.

Peti in colloquial language refers to lakh.

"I asked him how to pay the money, but he did not reply. Rather, he asked me to be ready to face dire consequences and disconnected the call," Choudhury said.

He lodged a written complaint with Englishbazar police station.

A large contingent of police rushed to Choudhury's residence and his Englishbazar municipality office. The police spoke to him for about an hour.

"In my political life of 50 years, I was targeted by my political enemies and criminals several times. I narrowly escaped death several times and lost my companions. But this threat is something else. Along with me, the caller threatened my family. It worries me," said Choudhury.

The police have started an investigation.

"We have identified the phone number and detained two persons. They are claiming that they have not used the mobile number for some time now," a senior cop said.