Anindya Chatterjee, the Trinamul councillor of Salt Lake who was arrested on extortion charges on July 12, was granted bail on Monday as the police failed to submit the chargesheet within 60 days of his arrest.

For an offence punishable with neither death nor life imprisonment, an accused has to be given bail if the chargesheet is not filed within 60 days of his/her arrest.

The period is 90 days for crimes punishable with death or life imprisonment.

"The police have failed to file the chargesheet within 60 days," Rajdeep Banerjee, one of the three lawyers who appeared for the Trinamul leader, submitted in the court of the additional chief judicial magistrate, Salt Lake.

Chatterjee has been charged under IPC sections 384 (extortion) 386 (extortion by putting a person in fear of death or grievous hurt), 387 (attempting to put a person in fear of death or grievous hurt in order to commit extortion), 388 (extortion by threat of accusation of an offence punishable with imprisonment for 10 years) and 389 (putting a person in fear of accusation of offence, in order to commit extortion).

If convicted, the councillor can be jailed for up to 10 years.

The magistrate granted bail to Chatterjee on a bond of Rs 5,000 and on the basis of a declaration by two guarantors. Chatterjee has been directed to cooperate with the police.

"I am innocent. I have been framed in a false case," Chatterjee said after stepping out of Dum Dum Central jail on Monday evening.

Why have the Bidhannagar commissionerate failed to file the chargesheet within 60 days?

Investigating officer Sahidullah Sana refused to comment. His boss, the inspector in charge of Bidhannagar North police station, said: "The matter is sub-judice."

"We will ask the investigating officer about the progress of the probe," said a senior officer.

Lawyer and Congress leader Arunava Ghosh said: "They have failed to submit the chargesheet within 60 days knowing well that the accused would get bail for such a lapse. It is a gross failure of the police."

Comments by a section of the officers suggested that they wanted Chatterjee to be released on bail.

An officer who refused to be named said: "He (Chatterjee) had only threatened. How long do you expect him to be behind bars for that?"

Another officer said: "He had only demanded money. The actual monetary transaction did not take place."

Chatterjee, the councillor of Ward 41 of the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation, had been arrested on chief minister Mamata Banerjee's instructions.

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had apparently told Mamata that Arunabha Mukherjee, one of her friends, was being unable to repair his house in Salt Lake's AC block as he had refused to meet the councillor's extortion demand.

Mukherjee did not lodge any police complaint. The councillor was arrested on the basis of a complaint filed by Santosh Lodh, an AE block resident, from whom Chatterjee had allegedly demanded Rs 12 lakh to let him renovate a two-storey house in BD block.

Some of Chatterjee's associates - such as Sindhu Kundu, an alleged syndicate operative; Mohammed Nasim, a contractual worker of the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation; and Dipankar Sen, a Baguiati resident - have been arrested. They are still behind bars.