Tapas, the TMC upa-panchayat pradhan of the area, was absconding ever since his name surfaced in the first information report lodged by the family of Kaushik Purkait who was beaten to death on Monday night.
He was arrested from near Duttapukur in neighbouring North 24 Parganas district late on Thursday night, a senior police officer said.
He was accompanied by a youth named Biltu from the car in which they were travelling, the officer said.
The youth has been detained.
Four others had earlier been arrested in connection with the murder of the youth, who was mercilessly beaten up on suspicion of being involved in theft of cattle from the area, the officer said.
Koushik, who came to visit his aunt in the area, was roaming around when he was confronted by members of a local club and forcibly taken to a room on Monday night.
He was later rescued by his relatives who rushed to the spot on hearing about the incident and took him to DiamondHarbourHospital. He died hours later at SSKMHospital in Kolkata on Tuesday.
The incident triggered a public outrage in the area with a mob vandalising houses of the accused when the youth’s body was taken to the house of his aunt in a procession on Wednesday.
Opposition Communist Party of India-Marxist, the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party visited the family of the deceased and demanded punishment for those involved and immediate arrest of Tapas, alleging that he was deliberately not being arrested by the police despite playing a key role in the confinement and lynching of the youth.
While the four other arrested have already been remanded to 13-days’ police custody by sub-divisional judicial magistrate court, DiamondHarbour on Wednesday, Tapas would be produced in the same court later on Friday.
Nine others were also been named in the FIR by the youth’s family.
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