A BJP leader from Itahar block in North Dinajpur was arrested on Friday for allegedly murdering a couple who were his neighbours after they had pressured him to return Rs 4 lakh he had purportedly collected in exchange for a job.

The decomposed bodies of Gautam Sarkar, 35, and his wife Tapashi, 30, were seized from a house at Gazole in Malda district.

Sources said BJP leader Krishna Kamal Adhikary had promised a job to his neighbour and homemaker Tapashi in the state health department. Adhikary hails from Bangar village in the Itahar block.

Police said preliminary probe revealed that Adhikary had taken Rs 4 lakh from Tapashi’s husband Gautam for the job.

“However, as Adhikary could not provide the job to Tapashi, the couple mounted pressure on him. They asked him to either give the job or return the money. On May 8, the BJP leader took the couple to Gazole after convincing them

that he had made arrangements for the job. We suspect Adhikary hacked the couple to death at a rented house in Vidyasagarpally of Gazole. As the bodies are decomposed, we are waiting for post-mortem reports,” said a police officer in Raiganj.

Bangar is around 35km from North Dinajpur district headquarters Raiganj. Gazole is 10km from Bangar.

Adhikary returned home alone on May 9. As the couple didn’t come back, their relatives became suspicious.

“Cellphones of Gautam and Tapashi were switched off. This made some local people and the couple’s relatives demonstrate in front of Adhikary’s house. On May 12, a complaint was also lodged at the Itahar police station,” said Mosharaf Hossain, the newly-elected Trinamul MLA of Itahar.

Adhikary is a booth committee president of the BJP.

The police started a probe and picked up Adhikary on Thursday. They then took him to the rented house in Gazole and seized the decomposed bodies of the couple who are survived by a nine-year-old son.

Gautam’s parents also lived with the couple. The villagers said the family was comparatively prosperous and had farmland. Gautam was also into stock trading.

“We have arrested the principal accused and suspect some others are involved in the crime,” said Sumit Kumar, the North Dinajpur police chief.

Adhikary was produced in the chief judicial magistrate’s court in Raiganj on Friday and remanded in police custody for seven days.

Basudeb Sarkar, the North Dinajpur district BJP president, said: “Adhikary is not associated with our party. Some people are trying to blemish us.”