Police re-arrested Ajijul Ali, 25, the prime accused in the Ugratara idol theft case, after he had fled from police custody on Saturday.

A police source said, “Ali was taken to his house in Satgaon, where he stays as a tenant, for investigation on Saturday morning. He jumped over a boundary wall and fled when the police were busy searching his house. He has been arrested again.”

Officer-in-charge of Latasil police station, Upen Kalita, said, “A massive search operation was launched to re-arrest Ali. Within an hour, we arrested him from Satgaon. A chain was recovered from him. Ali will be again produced in court on Monday,” he added.

Ali, who hails from Kaljhar village in Assam’s Baksa district, was arrested by Latasil police from Satgaon on Wednesday night.

He was remanded in police custody for three days after being produced in the court of the Kamrup (metro) chief judicial magistrate on Thursday.

Police had earlier arrested Adil Ali, 21, of Tihu, Chand Hussain, 18, of Batchar, Rahul Ali, 23, of Mukalmua, all in Nalbari district, and Mintu Rai, 26, of Panjabari here in connection with the theft.

After the idol was stolen on November 15 last year, a case (271/2018) was registered at Latasil police station.

The ancient idol was recovered by police on May 1 this year, a day before the temple management committee decided to install a new idol. Both the idols, old and new, were installed in the temple on May 23.

The new idol, modelled on the original one, was cast at Santiniketan in Bengal by city-based artist Robin Bor.

“The new idol, like the original, is made of ashtadhatu (an alloy of gold, silver, copper, zinc, lead, tin, iron and mercury) and looks exactly like the old one,” said Kailash Sarma, a member of the temple management committee.