Samir Mandal, who had masterminded the robbery at an agricultural cooperative bank at Krishnapur in Malda’s Gazole block on Wednesday, was a BJP member and had even contested a panchayat seat as a candidate of the saffron party in the rural polls in 2018.

According to police sources, 27-year-old Samir’s proximity with the BJP came to the fore during his interrogation. Samir was nabbed by the police along with three accomplices soon after the robbery on Wednesday.

“He also developed links with the Kamtapur Liberation Organization (KLO) and got involved in criminal activities,” said a police officer.

Many cases are pending against him in Gazole, Bamangola, Habibpur, and Itahar police stations.

The KLO is a proscribed terror outfit. It was formed by a group of Rajbanshi youths of north Bengal in the late 90s.

Ratan, Samir’s father and a daily wage earner, said his son had contested the Bottali seat of Raniganj-II panchayat in 2018 as a BJP candidate.

“However, he was defeated by a narrow margin by the Trinamool Congress candidate. Later, he was implicated in false cases and had spent months behind bars. Since then, his life took a different turn and we suspect that he got introduced to criminals at the correctional home,” Samir’s sexagenarian father lamented.

During the investigation, the police came to know that Kshirod Mandal, the accountant of the bank who was shot at by the robbers, is Samir’s cousin.

“He did not even spare my nephew,” said Ratan.

Samir’s wife deserted him a couple of years back. His son now lives with Ratan.

Chinmoy Deb Barman, the BJP MLA of Gazole, said Samir has no connections with the BJP.

“He is not associated with our party anymore. We want the law to take its course,” said the MLA.