Amrit Raj Singh, an aide of BJP leader Rakesh Singh, was arrested in Lucknow late on Saturday for his alleged involvement in the cocaine case that started with the arrest of another leader of the party, Pamela Goswami.

Pamela’s name and that of two others, who were arrested with her in New Alipore on February 19, have been dropped from the chargesheet that was submitted in court on May 3.

Police said they had found evidence that Amrit Raj had planted a bag containing cocaine inside Pamela’s car on February 19. “He kept the bag at the behest of Rakesh,” said an officer

While Pamela and Rakesh were arrested, the police couldn’t trace Amrit Raj all these months.

Amrit Raj fled to Nepal soon after the arrest of Pamela and Rakesh, investigating officers of Calcutta police's detective department said. He returned to the country around 10 days back and was hiding in Lucknow.

Officers tracking his movement arrived at his location after several hours of search and arrested him late on Saturday. “Amrit is being brought to Calcutta on transit remand. We will interrogate him to find out more about the cocaine trade and those who are involved in the cartel,” said a senior police officer.

In the 1,200-page chargesheet, the police have said Amrit Raj had collected the cocaine from Rakesh and planted it inside Pamela’s car.

Soon after that, a man named Aryan Dev allegedly alerted the local police station (New Alipore) about the purported presence of cocaine in Pamela’s car. A man named Suraj Kumar Shah allegedly helped Amrit Raj flee the spot on his scooter.

The police surrounded the car and arrested Pamela, her friend Prabir Dey and her guard Somnath Chatterjee before recovering 90g of cocaine from under the front seat.

There were five persons in the car when the cocaine was seized, the police said. “While three were arrested, two escaped. One of the two was Amrit Raj. We have CCTV footage of someone keeping something in black polythene in the car,” an officer said. Since her arrest, Pamela had been insisting that there were two others in her car and one of them had planted the cocaine.