The Bihar police arrested a Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader while he was allegedly distributing money to voters on the eve of the bypoll in the Belaganj Assembly constituency in Gaya district of Bihar on Tuesday.

Altogether 20 envelopes containing ₹200 each were recovered from him, while two other people present with him managed to escape on a motorcycle.

The arrested person has been identified as Govind Yadav, a resident of Maksudpur in Belaganj. He is said to be a panchayat unit president of the RJD and was allegedly distributing the envelopes and asking the people to vote for his party.

Some of the local people objected to this and informed the police about it.

“The station house officer (SHO) of the Men police station got a tip-off that some people were distributing money at Koeri Bigha Bhuin Toli with the intention of influencing the polls. The SHO and other police officials rushed to the place. A few people started fleeing on seeing them. They arrested one of them with the assistance of the local people,” Gaya senior superintendent of police (SSP) AshishBharti said.

The police searched the arrested person and recovered ₹4,000 in cash from him. The money was kept in different envelopes. An FIR has been registered against him and further investigation is underway.

“Two people who work for the party came to my house in the morning and asked me to accompany them. They were distributing money. I did not do anything. I was just accompanying them,” Govind told reporters after being arrested.

Belaganj seat is witnessing a quadrangular contest. It became vacant after its muscleman MLA Surendra Prasad Yadav got elected to the Lok Sabha. The RJD has given the ticket to his son Vishwanath Prasad Singh.

Vishwanath is pitted against Manorama Devi of Janata Dal United (JDU), Mohammad Amjad of Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraaj Party and Zamin Ali Khan of Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM.

RJD chief Lalu Prasad had campaigned in Belaganj and held a public rally on Monday.