Lookout notice issued against American Center attack mastermind Amir Reza Khan in hotel extortion case

Kolkata: A city court on Friday issued a lookout notice against American Center attack mastermind Amir Reza Khan in an alleged case of extortion. The owner of a south Kolkata five-star hotel had received an Rs 40-crore extortion call almost 15 years ago.
The Kolkata NIA special court issued the notice after multiple non-bailable warrants failed to reach Khan, who hails from Mofidul Islam Lane in Beniapukur. NIA special prosecutor Shyamal Ghosh confirmed the development on Friday.
Intelligence reports, however, suggest Khan died in an encounter near the Afghanistan border in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa a few years back. However, there is no official confirmation. The court ordered Khan to appear within 30 days, prompting the NIA to publish a newspaper advertisement.
The case dates to 2010 when four Kolkata businessmen received extortion calls from Indian Mujahideen (IM). The callers referenced the 2001 kidnapping of Khadim executive Partha Pratim Roy Burman. Police traced the calls to Dubai, Karachi, and Nepal.
The outfit demanded crores from four entrepreneurs and threatened them to pay up or face a fate like that of Roy Burman, who was abducted in 2001. Two FIRs were drawn up at that time, one being that of the south Kolkata five-star hotel owner.
According to intelligence sources, IM was then desperate to raise money. It made similar calls to several industrialists and developers in Mumbai, Surat, and Chennai around that time. City police sources confirmed that these calls were made between Feb 20 and March 2, 2010. The calls were made directly to the offices of two shoe companies in central Kolkata and to the owner of a star hotel in south Kolkata. The fourth businessman to receive the call hailed from Howrah.
Khan, stress intelligence agencies, orchestrated the Jan 22, 2002, American Center attack in retaliation to his brother Asif's death. Police shot Asif during an escape attempt following a diamond trader's kidnapping in Rajkot. Khan founded the Indian Mujahideen and masterminded the Khadim executive kidnapping.
The STF and detective department continued their investigation into the extortion cases and filed chargesheets earlier. The chargesheet named Khan as an absconder in the extortion case. The court issued a lookout notice after previous attempts to locate him failed. NIA sources claimed they were still seeking confirmation of Amir's status through international channels and intelligence networks.