The BJP chief of a gram panchayat, a Trinamool Congress leader and four others were arrested allegedly with a firearm and ammunition in Malda district on Friday night.

Police said they suspected that the panchayat chief and the Trinamul leader were associated with a racket involved in selling firearms.

Sources said Manikchak police had received a tip-off that illegal firearms would be sold near a temple close to the Haripur football ground.

Accordingly, a police team reached the spot. “Seeing the police, some people who assembled there fled. The police could, however, nab six of them and seized a seven mm pistol, two magazines and eight rounds of live cartridges,” said a police officer.

Debasish Mondal, the chief of Najirpur gram panchayat in Manikchak block, and Shraban Mondal, a member of the local block committee of the TMC’s youth wing, were among the six who were apprehended by the police.

“We suspect they were involved in trading illegal firearms and ammunition. Our officers are probing the case,” said Parthasarathi Haldar, the inspector-in-charge of Manikchak police station.

According to the sources, Sanjib Mondal and Ananta Mondal, who have also been arrested, reached the spot to sell the firearm and ammunition to Debasish. The sources said the panchayat chief had paid Sanjib ₹12,000 in cash for the deal, and the amount was also seized.

The police also took possession of two motorcycles and five cellphones from
the spot.

Gourchandra Mondal, the general secretary of the BJP’s Malda (south) organisational district, said the arrest of Debasish was part of a conspiracy hatched by the TMC to oust him from the post of the panchayat chief. “Trinamool wants to stall development projects in the panchayat,” said Gourchandra.

Babla Sarkar, a Malda district TMC leader, alleged that a section of BJP leaders had links with firearm smugglers in Jharkhand and Bihar. “The police should arrest them. Our party won’t stand by the arrested Trinamool leader,” said Sarkar.