12 docs get 10L extortion letters with death threat
Times of India | 25 April 2026
Kolkata: About a dozen doctors, several of them employed with top private hospitals of the city, have received typed extortion letters in the past few days seeking an amount of Rs 10 lakh from each. Two of the doctors have approached Kolkata Police, and FIRs have been drawn up at Anandapur and East Jadavpur police stations based on complaints from Anirban Basu of Desun Hospital and Uttam Kumar Saha of Peerless Hospital. The detective department has been roped in to probe the incident.
"On April 22 around 2 pm, the accused sent a letter to the complainant at Desun Hospital, through which he put him in fear of death in order to extort Rs 10,00,000," the FIR at Anandapur said. The letters sent to doctors identified the accused as a ‘special unit' of a militant organisation.
The two-page threat, written in bold capital letters, said, "We are guerilla warfare trained and carry all modern arms and ammunition." It bwent on to say that the doctors would be free after this "one-time payment".
According to cops, the letter instructed the doctors to personally deliver the money to a specific location near Science City on Thursday night, and place it in a black school bag. They were told to destroy the letter after reading and to attach the envelope to the bag. If the instructions were not followed, the accused threatened to kill the doctors' families.
Saha, the hospital's director of cardiology, also posted the letter on a WhatsApp group. Peerless Hospital CEO Sudipta Mitra said a couple of doctors at the hospital have received the letter. "It's disturbing, and the doctors have lodged a police complaint," Mitra said.
Basu, a paediatric and neonatology consultant, received the letter while attending to patients at the hospital on Wednesday afternoon. "An employee handed me the letter, and I thought it had come from the IMA. As I started reading it, I was left shocked and surprised. I have not received any threat calls, though," Basu said.
According to cops, both doctors' letters had the sender's name and address on the envelope — which was the same as that of the doctors'. Cops suspect the real sender might be someone known to all the doctors.