Kolkata businessman accuses Trinamool MLA of extortion

A Kolkata businessman on Tuesday accused Trinamool Congress leader and Bidhannagar Mayor Sabyasachi Dutta of trying to extort Rs 1 crore from him and threatening him with dire consequences if the money is not paid.

Dutta, however, refuted the allegation saying he does not know the businessman and claimed the incident to be a conspiracy by the BJP.

"He (Dutta) called me up on February 2 and asked me to donate Rs 2,30,000 for making party flags. I paid the said amount to one of his men on the next day. A few days later, he asked me to arrange Rs 30,000 for his party's election-related expenses in Tripura. In total, he demanded Rs 1 crore from me," businessman Madhusudan Chakraborty told the reporters here.

"When I told him that I won't be able to give that money, Dutta threatened me with dire consequences. He also claimed that even if I intimate Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee about the issue that would be of no help as she is already aware of the development," he alleged.

The businessman said he tried to get in touch with some senior leaders of Trinamool Congress but all of them refused to intervene stating Dutta is extremely influential.

He also claimed that he has the audio recordings of the phone calls made by Dutta and would release it at an appropriate time.

Debunking the businessman's claims, Dutta, MLA from Rajarhat, said there is no question of demanding money from the businessman as he does not know him.

"These are baseless allegations. I do not even know the businessman. Why would I ask money from him for the Tripura elections?" he said.

He also claimed the whole incident is a conspiracy against him by the BJP.

"It seems to be a conspiracy by the BJP. If someone has the recordings of me trying to extort money, he would immediately release it to the press. Why would he hold it back?" he said.

--IANS

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