Kolkata: West Bengal police arrested BJP leader Rakesh Singh from Galsi in Purba Bardhaman district, about 130 km from Kolkata, on Tuesday night in connection with his alleged involvement in a drug seizure case, a senior officer said.
His two sons were arrested by the narcotics section of the city police on charges of obstructing and stopping its personnel from entering the residence of the BJP state committee member in the port area of the city, he said.
Singh was arrested at a nakapoint on the national highway at Galsi by the district police after being alerted by Kolkata Police. Singh was in a car in which he was travelling to an unknown destination along with Central Industrial Security Force personnel provided as his security, the officer said.
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Earlier in the day, Singh had been summoned by Kolkata Police to appear before its narcotics department in connection with a drug case. He had then told the police that he had left the city for Delhi and will appear before them after returning.
BJP state youth leader Pamela Goswami and two others had been arrested in connection with the case.
“It seems he was trying to escape. He had switched to another vehicle probably sensing that we have already started looking for him. He was trying to evade arrest,” a top Kolkata Police officer said.
Singh had reportedly left his home in the city’s Kidderpore area in a SUV and later got into a car. Police said that the BJP leader had switched off his mobile phone but had used it once to make a call following which sleuths spotted him trying to escape taking the national highway to Bardhaman.
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“All the districts’ police were alerted and finally he was stopped at a naka point at Galsi in Purba Bardhaman at around 8 pm. Our teams have left to bring him to the city and hopefully by tonight we will be able to bring him here,” he said.
Singh had moved Calcutta High Court seeking a stay on and quashing of the notice by the police to appear before it on Tuesday as a witness in the case. The HC had dismissed Singh’s petition seeking the quashing of the notice by the police.
Pamela Goswami, the state secretary of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, was arrested along with a friend and her personal security guard from New Alipore area of the city on February 19, 2021 after about 90 grams of cocaine was seized from her car. She had then alleged that it was a conspiracy by Singh.