Kolkata: Barely hours after his arrest on charges of extortion., the former ward 134 Trinamool Congress councillor Shams Iqbal, representing Garden Reach, walked out free on Monday.Around 8 am, Shams became the 12th ex-councillor to get arrested since the last week of May. However, by 4 pm, Shams was granted bail at a personal bond of Rs 1,000 after being presented in the Alipore court even though multiple non-bailable sections were added to the FIR.Shams is widely known to be close to former mayor Firhad Hakim whom he often called “Bobby uncle” and had often been seen sharing the stage with him at public meetings and party events.At the Alipore court, lawyers from both sides argued before the judge, saying, “They (the accused and the victim) have had a long-standing business relationship. A misunderstanding had arisen, but it has now been settled.” The judge then asked the complainant, “Are you agreeable? He will be acquitted without charges.” The complainant replied, “Yes.” Following this, the court granted Shams Iqbal bail on a bond of Rs 1,000.According to police, a trader named Mohammad Shadab had filed a complaint against Shams on Sunday. According to it, Shams and his aides — Md Faraz alias Boon, Feroz Quereshi alias Churi Feroz, along with others — began demanding money from the businessman in June 2023. They allegedly told him that he would have to pay if he wanted to run his business in the area without trouble.The former councillor is also accused of threatening to kill the businessman and his family if he refused to pay. Out of fear and to continue his business peacefully, the complainant allegedly handed over the money, he had claimed. The trader has claimed he had been too frightened to approach the police until now.“The accused had committed extortion of Rs 70 lakh. But even after receiving the same they further threatened him with dire consequences and even threatened the victim with a revolver,” said additional CP (crime) Kunal Agarwal, adding that charges have been filed under sections 308(5), 351(2) and 3(5) of BNS and read with sections 25 and 27 of the Arms Act.Even in 2024, his name had surfaced after a five-storey building collapsed, killing nine people and injuring at least 17 in his area. Iqbal was in hospital to visit a relative when the news of the building collapse reached him. He immediately visited the spot and helped set up help camps at the spot.Shams was earlier also drawn flak from within the party and the opposition for driving high-end cars, including Porsche, Bentley, BMW and Aston Martin, to name some and even driving them all the way to the KMC headquarters. These cars are reportedly parked at a garage on Kachchi Sadak Road, said a local Trinamool functionary. But Iqbal has always flatly denied owning the cars. The police though have clarified that the Monday legal action had no relation with the recent Taratala warehouse collapse that claimed 16 lives. Last Saturday, the Bharatiya Janata Majdoor Cell, a trade union affiliated with the BJP, had submitted a memorandum to the Taratala PS seeking legal action against former mayor Hakim and former councillors Shams and Anwar Khan over alleged illegal constructions in the Kolkata Port area.
