Police have started tracking a call that the uncle of the Maheshtala boy, missing for the last 10 days, received last week, with the caller asking him for money to “settle” the case.

The boy’s uncle told the police that the caller identified himself as Shahenshah, who was arrested in Mumbai last week for allegedly torturing the boy with electric shocks inside a Maheshtala factory.

“According to the boy’s uncle the caller spoke in Bengali and asked for money to settle the case. We are trying to track the caller,” a senior officer of the Rabindranagar police station said.

The disappearance of the boy came to light after a video grabbed attention on social media.

In the video, the boy, tied up, was seen hanging from a wooden pole, and a man sitting close to him was seen fiddling with an extension cord before taking out a wire and touching the boy with it, allegedly to give him electric shocks. The young boy’s elder brother was also with him. The man giving him electric shocks was identified as Shahenshah.

The police’s effort to track the caller came against the backdrop of a section of residents of the village from where the missing boy belongs staged a protest in Islampur on Sunday, blaming the investigators for failing to track him.

“Shahenshah has been misleading us. There is still no clarity on the whereabouts of the boy,” the officer said.

Rabindranagar police said that the brothers were from Islampur and had come to the city for work. They were known to Shahenshah as they were from neighbouring
villages.

“When the boy’s uncle asked about the boy, the caller kept insisting on settling the case with money,” the officer said.

The Diamond Harbour police have sought the CID’s help to trace the boy.

So far, three men have been arrested in the case — Shahenshah, the prime accused, and two others accused of torturing the boy. They have been identified as Mustafa Kamal and Tauhid Alam.