Police on Saturday arrested the brother of a local Trinamul Congress councillor, along with two other youths, in connection with the alleged gang-rape of an 18-year-old girl at Titagarh in North 24-Parganas on Wednesday night.

Prime accused Zunaid Ahmed, who is the brother of Trinamul councillor Arman Mondal, was arrested from Aligarh in Uttar Pradesh. Arman Mondal represents ward 5 in Titagarh. Zunaid’s two associates Sonu Ansari and Mohammed Mohasin were also arrested from Asansol on Saturday morning.

Police had earlier arrested the fourth accused, Bishal Yadav, from Sodepur on Friday. An investigating officer of Titagarh police said that all four accused youths had been arrested by tracking their mobile phone locations. A source in the police said Zunaid was tracked down with the help of railway police and a team of cops from Titagarh has left for Aligarh to bring back the accused.Ansari and Mohasin were picked up from Asansol by a team of Titagarh police with the help of local cops.While Zunaid will be brought on transit remand, the three others — Ansari, Mohasin and Yadav — were produced before a court in Barrackpore on Saturday that sent them to 14 days in police custody.

“All the four youths, who had been named in the FIR, have been arrested within 36 hours of the girl’s father lodging the complaint. The administration had also conveyed a clear order to arrest all the accused and ignore their political connections,” a senior police official of the Barrackpore Commissionerate said.

On Wednesday night around 11pm, the teenager was allegedly raped by four youths near her home in Titagarh. The girl was with her grandfather and they were both waiting for her father to come home from work.The youths had initially snatched her mobile phone. When the girl chased the youths and reached a deserted place a few hundred metres away from her home, the goons allegedly forcibly dragged her behind some bushes and gang-raped her.

Senior cop replaced

The chief of Barrackpore Commissionerate Ajoy Thakur was replaced with Alok Rajoria on Saturday.However, it could not be ascertained immediately whether this move of the state government had anything to do with the gang-rape of the Titagarh teenager.