KOLKATA: A group of potential buyers were visiting a site at Dum Dum Park to check out 3BHK flats on Saturday, when two men arrived on a bike and shot at the promoter they were with, scaring the living daylights out of them.Shekhar Poddar (55), who was shot at his right hand at close range, has been admitted to a private hospital off EM Bypass in a critical condition. Poddar’s partner Chiradeep Roy, who was also at the spot, lodged a police complaint late at night, stating that members of their rival gang had demanded Rs 5 lakh from them. This gang is run by Babu Naik, a close aide of local extortionist Rajesh Naik, who came out of jail two-and-a-half months ago and is now believed to be operating from outside Bengal. In his complaint, Roy claimed that Babu’s men came to the spot and demanded the Rs 5 lakh. As Poddar refused to pay, they shot at him and snatched gold ornaments that they were wearing and cash before fleeing.Saturday’s incident comes barely a couple of months after some developers at Dum Dum Park and Lake Town knocked on the door of the Bidhannagar commissionerate, complaining against extortion by criminals, apparently operating from inside prisons. A few weeks ago, several buses were damaged for allegedly not paying enough “protection money”.At Dum Dum Park, it was around 11am that Poddar and Roy stood in front of an underconstruction building near Tank 4. Some potential buyers had come to the site to check out 3BHK flats, measuring 1,590sqft and 1,475sqft. While they stood downstairs, some masons worked upstairs. “I was working on my computer at home when I noticed from the window, two men arrive on a bike. A couple of minutes later, I heard an argument. It continued for a few minutes after which, I heard a loud bang, something similar to a kalipotka, followed by a pained scream. By the time I reached the site, I saw two men fleeing on a bike, abusing. The buyers, who had come to check the flats, were terrified and rooted to the ground with shock,” recounted a resident who lives next door. “The developer was taken to hospital in a black car.”Local thug, Gedu, Nayak’s arch rival and now in jail, had initially been named in certain extortion calls this year. “We might be looking at a full-fledged gang war between Nayak and Gedu, out to mint money out of Dum Dum Park, which is witnessing promoting worth crores,” claimed another developer from Lake Town. South Dum Dum municipality chairman Panchu Roy, however, did not mince words: “It is worth an industry worth crores now. Such incidents have been happening.” Rajesh and his arch rival Gedu or Gautam Boral have been at loggerheads to take control of areas in Dum Dum Park; they are also notorious extortionist in the Lake Town, Baguiati, Dum Dum Park area.Political blame game shortly after the shooting as local MLA Sujit Bose visited the spot and blamed the local BJP leadership. “The local leaders bailed Nayak out of jail and paraded him around,” he claimed. Local BJP leader Piyush Kanoria rubbished the claim: “It is for Trinamool to answer how this incident took place. The Nayaks worked with the Trinamool in the civic polls.”Residents of the area—a middle- and upper-middleclass nerighbourhood—were noticeably shocked. “Imagine someone coming and shooting a promoter and then brazenly walking away, without any fear. The Dum Dum Park I know has not witnessed such an incident in a long time,” said Aloka Chatterjee, a senior citizen living a couple of blocks away.A panchayat pradhan from Odisha, Rajesh was earlier arrested from Cuttack for his alleged involvement in robberies in the city and a shooting at Lake Town back in 2013. Police said he was involved in dozens of cases, including that of murder, extortion and abduction. His was involved in the murder of local gangster Tuna Hati, who worked for Gedu.

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