A magistrate on Friday termed Trinamul councillor "Anindya Chatterjee and his associates" "goonda bahini (gang of goons)" before rejecting the bail petition of two of them.

Chatterjee, councillor of Ward 41 in Salt Lake, and his alleged associates have been arrested on extortion charges.

Subrata Ghosal, the judicial magistrate in a Salt Lake court, asked his stenographer while dictating his verdict to write the words "goonda bahini" in brackets next to "Anindya Chatterjee and his associates".

The magistrate made the comment while rejecting the bail plea of Sindhu Kundu and Mohammad Nasim, who were arrested on Thursday.

While being taken out of the court, Sindhu told reporters: " Aamader chhobi tuley ki hobey? Aamra toh chunoputi. Aasol lokeder dhorun. Aamra byabsa korey khai. Boro mathader dhorun (Why are you clicking our photographs? We are small fry. Catch hold of the real culprits. We are businessmen. Go after the big players)."

Nasim shouted: "I am an employee of the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation. I merely did what Dada told me to do."

Sindhu, an alleged syndicate boss, and Nasim, who was a part-time driver of the arrested councillor and a contractual employee of the Salt Lake civic body, were allegedly in the group that had in March threatened Salt Lake resident Santosh Lodh and took away construction materials he had stored to renovate his house in BD Block.

Opposing the bail petition, public prosecutor Sabir Ali submitted: "The two accused accompanied Chatterjee to Lodh's house in March and threatened the elderly man after he refused to pay them Rs 12 lakh. Several witnesses mentioned the names of the two accused in their statements to the police."

Lawyer Rajdeep Banerjee, who was representing Sindhu and Nasim, denied any link between his clients and Chatterjee. "Both have been framed," Banerjee said.

Most of the Salt Lake residents Metro spoke to said the words "goonda bahini" were apt for Chatterjee and his men.

"The syndicate operatives function like a gang of goons. They threaten contractors and force them to buy construction materials from them at rates much higher than what are prevailing in the market. If anyone refuses to buy materials from them, he or she is threatened with murder and construction is forcibly stopped," a resident of BD Block said.

Sources at Bidhannagar North police station said Sindhu ran a gang of around 40 youths, who moved around on bikes and kept an eye on construction sites. "Sindhu paid his men according to the volume of business they would bring," an officer said.

Chatterjee was arrested following chief minister Mamata Banerjee's intervention. Salt Lake resident Arunabha Mukherjee, an alleged victim of Chatterjee's extortion racket, had narrated his plight to Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, with whom he had studied. Mamata learnt about the case from Hasina.

Since Hasina's friend had not lodged a complaint, Chatterjee was arrested on the basis of Lodh's complaint.