Jayanth Singh, the arrested Trinamool Congress strongman of Kamarhati, allegedly led a group of young men to severely beat up Sayandip Panja, 23, and his mother Bubun early on Monday despite him denying it, preliminary investigation by police revealed.

The immediate trigger behind the assault on Sayandip is still to emerge, officers said. But there were reasons to believe that Jayanth spearheaded the attack by a group of men who are members of the Ariadaha Taltala Sporting Club, officers added.

“The assault on Sayandip and his mother Bubun could have been possibly averted if Jayanth wanted. He claims he wasn’t around the spot. But it doesn’t appear to be so,” said a senior officer of the Barrackpore police commissionerate.

After being on the run for four days, Jayanth was arrested near the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), close to Dunlop, on the city’s northern fringes early on Thursday.

The police said he was hopping resorts in north Bengal and had run out of money when he decided to return to collect some from one of his acquaintances.

A Barrackpore court later remanded Jayanth in 14 days of police custody.

“We have a video showing Jayanth leaving the Ariadaha spot after some neighbours protested the assault on my son and wife. Even the CCTV installed close to the spot where they were assaulted would have this. The police need to go through the entire footage to see how Jayanth was involved and not try and shield him,” Sayandip’s father Bimal told Metro on Friday.

A familiar face in almost all major political rallies in and around Kamarhati, Ariadaha and Belgharia, Jayanth’s meteoric rise took place over the last five years, said several residents of Kamarhati.

Several of them alleged that Jayanth cashed on his proximity to Madan Mitra, the Trinamool MLA from Kamarhati. Separate pictures of Jayanth with Mitra resurfaced following his arrest. His pictures with Saugata Roy, Dum Dum’s Trinamool MP, emerged as well.

“The area around Dunlop and Kamarhati began witnessing a rise in real estate development on either side of BT Road over the last few years and Jayanth realised he could make quick money by running syndicates,” said an Ariadaha resident who did not want to be named.

“He started capturing local clubs one after another, including Ramkrishna Pally, Jonaki Sporting Club, Sangrami Club and Pallimangal Club, while parallelly running satta dens and joints selling opium,” said the resident.

As money began flowing in, Jayanth allegedly started forcibly acquiring land around Ariadaha by offering less than the prevailing land price per cottah.

These land tracts would be handed over to real estate developers with Jayanth’s syndicate calling the shots, including deciding on the masons who would work, alleged a section of residents of Ariadaha’s Kedar Nath Singha Road.

“While in custody we will investigate cases including alleged attempts to murder, assault and extortion where Jayanth’s involvement has surfaced,” the officer said.

“But we have not received any complaint against him of forcible land acquisition,” he said.

Mitra and Roy, the local MLA and the MP, admitted to knowing Jayanth. But both said they were not aware of his alleged criminal activities.

“In one of the pictures with me that is doing the rounds, I was warning him to mend his ways or face consequences. There’s no denying satta dens and joints selling opium have popped up across different parts of Kamarhati,” Mitra said. “I had asked the police to take necessary actions but you must realise I don’t control the police.”

Roy said he met Jayanth once during a football match. He said he had asked the police to take action against Jayanth.

“I know Jayanth Singh. He was arrested a year back for allegedly attempting to murder Bumba, an Ariadaha resident,” Roy said. “I had asked the police to take action against all those named in the FIRs, including Jayanth who is a criminal.”