Police said they had rescued a woman, who had been abducted from her home in Birbhum district on Thursday night, from Dalkhola railway station in North Dinajpur on Sunday morning.

Bolpur additional superintendent of police Tanmoy Sarkar said the woman’s father, a BJP leader, had been arrested for “staging” the abduction “to fulfil his own political agenda”.

However, the police refused to confirm if the 28-year-old woman had known about the kidnap plan. “She is in trauma now. We will question her later,” said a police officer.

Two persons were arrested from Dalkhola in connection with the abduction. They are Raju Batak Sarkar, a mason, and Dipankar Mondal, a factory worker.

Both are residents of Dakshin Rathkhola in Naxalbari. They will be produced in court on Monday.

“We have rescued the girl from Dalkhola station and arrested two persons who were with her. After interrogating the two, we came to know that they and the BJP leader knew each other and visited each other’s houses. The BJP leader held a meeting with the two arrested persons on February 13, a day before the kidnapping,” said ASP Sarkar.

The BJP leader was in Trinamul earlier and changed the party before panchayat polls last year.

Mobs had put up roadblocks in different places on Friday to protest the abduction.

On Saturday evening, the car of Trinamul MLA from Labhpur, Manirul Islam, had been chased away, along with his three security personnel, by people wielding sticks and rods. The car was ransacked at Labpur while he was returning to his constituency. Manirul had to take shelter at Labhpur police station after the attack.

District Trinamul chief Anubrata Mondal alleged that the MLA (Manirul) was also a party to the staging of the kidnapping.

“The woman has said Mani kaka (Manirul) and her father had asked her to accompany the two (accused) persons. He may be an MLA but he is not latsaheb,” Anubrata told reporters.

“It is very sad that a father staged the kidnapping of his daughter,” he added.

Sources said there was a feud between Manirul and Anubrata in Trinamulat Labhpur.

Manirul declined comments on Anubrata’s allegation.

BJP district president Ramkrishna Roy said: “Police did what Anubrata Mondal asked them to. The police have arrested our party worker to hide the people who are actually guilty.”

The BJP leader had alleged that around 8pm on Thursday evening, three men had came on motorbikes, entered the house and held all five family members at gunpoint and kidnapped her.

“They took all our mobile phones and held us at gunpoint. Then, they took away my daughter. I was not at home then,” the BJP leader had said.