The Trinamul Congress on Saturday took its first step towards damage control over the Sandeshkhali protests by suspending a North 24-Parganas zilla parishad member from the party for six years, following which he was arrested.

The troubled zone remained largely calm as the state administration deployed police in large numbers and clamped Section 144 to crack down on the violent protests that had gripped the area for the past three days.

Hours after the suspension of zilla parishad member Uttam Sardar, he was arrested from the Sandeshkhali police station area. Basirhar superintendent of police Hossain Mehedi Rehman told The Telegraph: “Uttam Sardar was arrested on Saturday night from the limits of the Sandeshkhali police station.”

A police officer said Sardar was arrested following a complaint lodged against him by a woman from Sandeshkhali on Thursday.

"Sardar will be produced before a local court on Sunday," the officer said.

The decision to crack the whip on Sardar, who is one of three Trinamul leaders at the receiving end of Sandeshkhali residents' anger, was taken at the behest of Diamond Harbour MP Abhishek Banerjee, party spokesperson and irrigation minister Partha Bhowmik said.

"We have taken the decision to suspend Uttam Sardar based on reports received from the (local unit of the) party. Abhishek Banerjee has decided to suspend him for misbehaving with the people," Bhowmik said.

Trinamul insiders said Abhishek's decision to act against Sardar was a clear message that the party was not willing to let the matter spiral further out of control and allow the Opposition to exploit the situation in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls.

The suspension decision came barely 24 hours after Bhowmik gave a virtual clean chit to fugitive Trinamul leader Shahjahan Sheikh and his aides, Sardar and Shibaprasad Hazra, and claimed the protests were concentrated in a few pockets.

"Where is the need to take action (against the accused)? No complaint had been lodged against them," the minister had told the media.

The U-turn comes after three days of violent protests by Sandeshkhali villagers, most of them women, against alleged atrocities committed by Shanjahan, Sardar and Hazra.

Over three days, villagers armed with sticks had set fire to properties belonging to Hazra and Sardar. The police, massively outnumbered, had stood mute spectators.

The villagers had demanded the arrest of the trio, whom they accused of grabbing their land and perpetrating other atrocities. The protests had erupted more than a month after a mob attacked Enforcement Directorate officials who had arrived to raid the Sandeshkhali home of Shahjahan in connection with the PDS scam.

While Trinamul, through its disciplinary action against Sardar, has tried to defuse the political crisis caused by the public outrage against the three zilla parishad members, the police have displayed sudden alacrity since Friday night to take control of the situation.

As television channels beamed visuals of Trinamul leader Hazra's hatchery, farmhouse and home erupting in flames, top police officers rushed to the spot on Friday and clamped Section 144 on the area to prevent the violence escalating.

Trinamul insiders attributed the flurry of administrative and organisational steps to an intervention from Abhishek who had met chief minister Mamata Banerjee after his return from abroad earlier this week.

Sources said that Abhishek, furious over the deteriorating law and order situation and mob outrage in Sandeshkhali, had on Friday night called some prominent Trinamul core committee members of North 24-Parganas to a meeting at his office, where the decision to suspend Sardar was finalised.

A Trinamul leader said Abhishek decided to suspend Sardar after getting reports on the Sandeshkhali situation from Trinamul leaders Sujit Bose, Partha Bhowmik, Rathin Bose and Narayan Biswas.

Sources said one of the "conditions" that Abhishek set during his meeting with Mamata was "zero tolerance" of leaders who do not have a good image among the people, irrespective of their age and position.

"Abhishek has been advocating a purge within the party. The way he instantly removed a gram panchayat pradhan in East Midnapore based on people's complaints during his mass outreach programme last year made his stand amply clear," a Trinamul source said.