A Trinamul Congress panchayat chief in North Dinajpur was arrested on Friday for allegedly orchestrating an attack on a rival party leader, which led to the death of a 30-year-old civic volunteer on Thursday morning.

Mehboob Alam, the chief of Matikunda 1 panchayat in Islampur block, is a close aide to Trinamul district president Kanaiyalal Agarwal.

“The arrest was made based on a complaint lodged by deceased civic volunteer Sakib Akhtar’s family members. Apart from Mehboob, 11 other people have also been arrested,” said a police source.

A family member of Sakib had alleged that Mehboob had led a group of around 60 criminals and attacked the house of another Trinamul leader Shanawaj Alam. Shanawaj is a follower of Islampur Trinamul MLA Abdul Karim Choudhury.

The homes of the civic volunteer and Shanawaj are adjacent to each other. Sakib suffered injuries when crude bombs were hurled at the Trinamul leader’s residence.

Sources in Trinamul have said Choudhury and Agarawal lead rival factions within the party.

“The clash was for power and area domination,” said a resident of Matikunda, a village about 100km from district headquarters Raiganj.

Mehboob said: “I am not involved in any such attack. Some false allegations were made against me.”

On Thursday, MLA Choudhury had threatened to resign unless Trinamul chairperson Mamata Banerjee took action against the district party chief Agarwal.

The MLA claimed that Agarwal didn’t listen to him and appointed Jakir Hussian, “an anti-social”, as the block president of the party.

Agarwal had refused to respond to the MLA’s charges.

However, after Mehboob’s arrest, Agarwal accused the veteran leader of misusing his stature in the party. “Abdul Karim Choudhury is a veteran leader of Trinamul but he has started misusing his stature in the party,” said Agarwal, adding that the MLA was making baseless allegations against him.

Agarwal, too, said he would also apprise Trinamul president Mamata Banerjee and other state leaders of Choudhury’s activities that were allegedly harming the party.

The Trinamul district president, however, said it was not “an intra-party feud.”

Observers believe that the tussle between the two senior district leaders could be detrimental to the party, especially when rural polls were ahead.

Police sources said Mehboob and two others were remanded in police custody for 10 days, while the remaining nine were sent to judicial custody.