Kolkata: Tempted by businessman’s wealth boast, relative’s friend planned abduction

KOLKATA: A day after a businessman was accosted in Taratala by a gang of extortionists who opened fire twice, injuring the victim, police claimed the abduction was masterminded by a close friend of one of his relatives.
Arindam Dhar (36) might rue the fact that boasting about his wealth—assets worth Rs 800 crore—to his relatives and friends was what cost him dear.Tapan Saha, who had worked for Dhar in Nepal, was reportedly privy to Dhar’s claims. “After interrogating the five, we learnt that Saha was a friend of Dhar’s maternal uncle. He even worked at Dhar’s casino in Nepal for six months before quitting two years ago and returning to Kolkata,” said DC (South) Meeraz Khalid.
Dhar, claimed police, had the “bad habit” of bragging about his savings and wealth to even outsiders. “He would tell everybody that he had Rs 800 crore tied up in various businesses in Nepal. Added to this, on seeing Dhar doing well and spending huge amounts of money in Kolkata—from buying property to splurging at malls—Saha started to threaten him. He initially made extortion calls, asking for a share of Rs 200 crore,” police said.
When his initial tactics failed, Saha employed some goons from Behala and Maheshtala to abduct Dhar and extricate the money from him, said the police, adding that the mastermind told them that Dhar had taken a loan of Rs 200 crore from him and if the gang could “recover it, they would be paid a commission of 40%”. Saha and the gang, sporting combat fatigues, posed as a team from the anti-terrorist cell in Lalbazar when they abducted Dhar near the Jinjirabazar-Bata Nagar flyover and demanded Rs 200 crore from him.
Dhar told the accused he could pay Rs 20 lakh if he was taken back to his office at Sahapur Colony, claimed cops. “The complainant fooled them by saying his vault opened only with his fingerprints and convinced them to come to his office. He said there was only one staffer at his office at that point. But on reaching, when the gang found eight people, they panicked, fired and made to escape but one of them was caught by a local,” said an officer.