Former MLA and Bidhannagar mayor Sabyasachi Dutta was arrested early on Tuesday following a complaint by a Salt Lake businessman alleging extortion, criminal intimidation and threats to his life.

In his complaint at Bidhannagar North police station on Monday afternoon, Madhusudan Chakraborty alleged that Dutta had forced him to pay a little over ₹1 crore in February 2018.

Dutta, then the Bidhannagar mayor and Trinamool Congress observer for the Tripura Assembly elections, was accused by Chakraborty at the time. Chakraborty alleged that despite filing a complaint, the police had taken no action.

On Monday afternoon, Chakraborty lodged a fresh complaint, and the police registered an FIR against Dutta, now a Trinamool councillor from Ward 31 in Salt Lake.

In the 2026 Assembly elections, Dutta lost on a Trinamool ticket from Barasat.

“In February 2018, Dutta called me demanding ₹1 crore and 2.5 lakh. He threatened to kill me and my family members if the money was not paid. His aides visited my office and collected the amount,” Chakraborty said.

“I lodged a police complaint that year and followed it with another in 2019. No action was taken. Dutta was then the mayor (of Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation), and no one dared to speak against him,” the businessman said.

“It is a mystery how I am still alive. Anyone looking to buy or sell property, or even demolish a house, had to pay him. He wielded immense power. Now that the BJP is in power, I urge others who were afraid to file complaints against Dutta to come forward and seize this opportunity,” Chakraborty said.

Within hours of Chakraborty lodging the complaint, a team from the Bidhannagar North police station reached Dutta’s apartment in Rajarhat and questioned him for several hours.

Sources said around 10pm, Dutta was brought to the police station after he allegedly refused to cooperate with the visiting officers.

The second round of interrogation began at the police station around 10pm on Monday. Dutta was arrested around 1.10am on Tuesday.

The Trinamool leader refuted the charges levelled against him as “false and
fabricated”, and said he was a victim of “politics of vengeance”.

“Why ₹1 crore? It can even be ₹100 crores. If anyone can prove that I collected a single rupee, I am ready to hang from the noose. Anyone can level an allegation,” Dutta said on his way to a medical test following his arrest.

He alleged that the complainant was a fraud.

“This businessman was arrested in 2018 by the Bidhannagar North police station. His family members and another person had approached me to bail him out. This charge (against me) is false and fabricated. This is nothing but political vengeance,” said Dutta.

Some residents of the township, however, alleged that Dutta used to seek money for almost anything, be it constructing a house, buying a property or providing civic amenities.

A section of them gathered outside the police station on Tuesday afternoon and hurled rotten tomatoes, eggs and cow dung at Dutta when the police brought him to the court.

“The cow dung was to purify him,” one of the attackers said.

The Bidhannagar court sent Dutta to police custody for eight days. Dutta’s legal team questioned his arrest, challenging the timing of the complaint for an incident that allegedly dated back to 2018.