Feb. 18: The owner of Delish Dhaba on Syed Amir Ali Avenue near Quest Mall has alleged that Sheikh Vinod, a gangster out on bail, demanded Rs 5 lakh from him as "goonda tax".

Hasan Mirza lodged a complaint with Karaya police station on Thursday night, saying several men working for Vinod had threatened him with dire consequences if he didn't pay up.

But investigation is stuck because of the absence of CCTV camera footage that would have helped identify the men, an officer said.

Also, the fact that Vinod communicates his demands through the phones of his associates who act as couriers on bikes and vanish after conveying the message has posed a hurdle before the cops.

An officer said Vinod, who has a criminal past, ran extortion rackets even when he was in jail.

He has been out on bail for the past year.

On January 28, two men on a bike approached Mirza, 33, near his restaurant saying "bhai" wanted to speak to him.

"When I asked who this bhai was, they said it was Sheikh Vinod and handed over a phone," Mirza said.

"The caller identified himself as Vinod and said I should silently pay Rs 5 lakh through Parvez Barti who often visited my restaurant with his friends and left saying bhai will pay. I had kept quiet because I didn't want any trouble at my place."

An officer of Karaya police station said Vinod, who has several extortion cases against him, had shifted base to the Jadavpur area these days.

Delish Dhaba that used to operate as a takeaway joint moved to the present location four months ago.

"Maybe they feel my business has flourished... that's why I have shifted to this prime location. But that's not true.... I got this plot from a relative as it was lying unused," Mirza said.

After the first encounter with the two men, several men had been visiting his restaurant, at times just smoking and glaring at him, making him feel intimidated, Mirza said in his complaint.

On Thursday, two men on a bike confronted him on the road near his restaurant and handed him a mobile phone, he said.

"The caller said this was the last warning and that I had 48 hours to pay or face the consequences. As I returned the phone, one of the men lifted his shirt to show a gun tucked into his trousers before speeding away."

Mirza said he filed the complaint that night.

While going through the CCTV camera installed in the restaurant, cops found that the machine could record only a day's footage.

"The telephonic threats happened through phones that belonged to men who are yet to be identified. So, technically there is no direct evidence against Vinod or his associate Barti," an officer said.

Metro suicide

Metro services were disrupted for almost an hour when a woman, in her early 30s, jumped in front of a Kavi Subhash-bound train at Netaji Bhavan with her five-year-old son at 9.07pm today.

The child escaped with facial injuries but the woman's body was mutilated beyond recognition, police said.

The child has been admitted to SSKM Hospital.