Former Trinamool Congress councillor Sushanta Ghosh, who was arrested recently, allegedly turned off his mobile phone to avoid detection through tower location tracking and was planning to relocate from Puri to Bhubaneswar, Kolkata Police sources said on Thursday.

The police, however, traced him to an undisclosed location in Puri with the help of their counterparts in Odisha and nabbed him on Wednesday.

The former Kolkata Municipal Commission (KMC) councillor was first produced before an Odisha court and later brought to Calcutta on transit remand. On Thursday, he was produced before the Alipore court around 11 am.

“The accused sent his family to Mumbai and switched off his mobile phones to evade electronic tracking,” a senior police officer said.

Ghosh was the councillor of Ward 108, covering parts of Anandapur, VIP Nagar and Chowbaga off EM Bypass. The ward includes both upscale residential complexes and fringe urban settlements.

Once close to Trinamool supremo Mamata Banerjee, he has been on the run since May 29, when a formal complaint was lodged against him with the Anandapur police station.

On May 27, a couple of days before the complaint was lodged, Ghosh resigned as the chairman of Borough XII of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation.

In the complaint, a hawkers’ association near the EM Bypass-Ruby crossing alleged that Ghosh charged ₹3-4 lakh each trader for permission to set up stalls along the stretch that connects the Urbana housing complex and the Ruby crossing.

“I was given a five-foot-wide space to set up my fish stall on the pavement adjoining Ruby Hospital and asked to pay ₹2.5 lakhs,” said Kamal Das, one of the hawkers.

“I was told to pack up and leave if I couldn’t. I hope that after his arrest, I will get back the amount,” said Das.

Sources in the police said Ghosh allegedly collected the amount from over 950 such stall owners.

Ghosh’s driver, who allegedly collected the money on behalf of his employer, was arrested near the Bengal-Odisha border on June 5.

Pressing for police custody, the state counsel told the court that Ghosh’s interrogation was crucial to identify others involved in this extortion.

Ghosh was remanded to police custody till June 28.