A councillor’s period of incarceration has been extended while a mayoral council member’s husband has been arrested as complaints of unlawful activities continue to be lodged in Salt Lake against Trinamul Congress leaders ever since the BJP came to power in the state Assembly.

Ranjan Poddar, the Trinamul Congress councillor of Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation’s Ward 34, who is also the chairman of Borough V, has been taken into custody by the New Town police station. He was already lodged in Dum Dum central correctional home in connection with other complaints filed in Salt Lake.

“A plot in CD Block in Action Area 1 had been booked from Hidco for a cooperative apartment block with Poddar as the chief promoter. This happened sometime in 2000-2001. Six members of the cooperative society — Poddar’s brother was the seventh — have alleged to be kept in the dark about whether the security money collected from them had been deposited with Hidco. They have also complained about an attempt to change the cooperative’s name without their knowledge or consent. They unearthed the information possibly through an RTI query raised with Hidco. Also the building has not come up on the plot in 25 years,” said an officer of the Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate.

Poddar, a close aide of former minister Sujit Bose, had been arrested late on May 20 on charges of alleged extortion and intimidation. He was picked up by a team from the Bidhannagar North police station in connection with an alleged extortion racket operating in the Karunamoyee bus stand area. “There are complaints of extortion against him from auto and bus operators. He was refused bail in Bidhannagar court and remanded in jail custody,” said a police source.

The New Town police took him in custody on Monday based on an order from the Barasat court where charges of cheating and forgery of documents have been pressed against him. “He was in Dum Dum jail. We prayed for his production in Barasat court in connection with the alleged activities in New Town. The court has given us custody for four days. Our investigations are underway,” said another police officer.

Husband picked up

Meanwhile, Bhaskar Sinha Roy, the husband of Ward 40 councillor and mayoral council member Tulsi Sinha Roy, was arrested on alleged charges of extortion.

“He was picked up from the Purta Bhavan island on Sunday and produced in court on Wednesday. He was remanded in police custody for six more days,” said an officer.

“Shopkeepers from around City Centre, which falls under the ward, have lodged complaints of extortion against him of Rs 1,500 to Rs 5,000 on a monthly basis,” he added.

Tulsi Sinha Roy has herself received interim protection from arrest from the high court on May 22 in connection with a case alleging extortion from local hawkers. The court has directed the state to produce the case diary on the next date of hearing.

Another BMC mayoral council member, Debraj Chakraborty, and his wife, Aditi Munshi, a former MLA, also moved the high court on May 21, seeking anticipatory bail in a disproportionate assets case filed by Bidhannagar City Police.