Rakesh Singh's son claimed his father was being victimsed
Bengal BJP leader Rakesh Singh, whom the party's youth-wing leader Pamela Goswami has named in a drugs case, has been arrested at Galsi in the state's East Burdwan district, 125 kilometres from Kolkata.
He was allegedly fleeing the state by road in an Audi. The Kolkata Police has also arrested his two sons for trying to prevent them from entering their residence today over absence of search warrant - which arrived later.
Ms Goswami, who was arrested last Friday over allegations of possessing around 100 grams cocaine, has accused Mr Singh - a close aide of senior BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya - of implicating her in the drugs case. "They have been trying to frame me for a long time. Rakesh Singh has done this. I have credible information. I have evidence," she had told reporters in Bengali outside a local court.
Mr Singh was asked to appear today at the Kolkata Police headquarters at 4 pm for questioning in connection with the case. He, however, refused, saying he was travelling to Delhi and his lawyers could meet with the police.
Earlier today, a huge police force reached outside Mr Singh's house. His children, however, refused to let the police in.
The high-intensity drama played out on a day when a CBI team visited Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's nephew Abhishek Banerjee's house to question his wife Rujira over some bank transactions allegedly linked to a scam.
Mr Singh's sons said the police action against their father was vendetta and politically motivated, perhaps because of the CBI's questioning of the wife of Abhishek Banerjee earlier in the day.
"My father is being victimised. I don't know anything about Pamela Goswami and the drugs case. My father is not involved. He is being victimised, I don't know why," his son, Saheb Singh, had told NDTV today.