Police arrested Saddam Sardar, the prime accused in the fake gold artefact-selling racket, from the Chuprijhara area of Kultali in South 24-Parganas early on Thursday.

Police said Saddam, who is known to be close to the Trinamul Congress, was arrested from a fishery, along with his close aide Mannan Khan during a raid. Khan had provided shelter to absconding Saddam.

Saddam has been accused of cheating a person of ₹12 lakh and attacking a police team during a raid on his home at Jwalaberia-Paitarhat village of Kultali on July 15. The accused was produced before the ACJM court in Baruipur and remanded in police custody.

The police have been looking for him after numerous people lodged complaints about being cheated by him for over a over a decade. He had been arrested in the past but managed to get bail.

Superintendent of police, Baruipur police district, Palash Chandra Dhali said: "During the last ten years, there have been many allegations against Saddam including fraud, selling stolen idols, and printing fake notes. Charge sheets have also been made in seven cases. He was further accused and wanted in connection with a fraud of ₹12 lakh."

On July 15 morning, local villagers and family members of Saddam attacked a police team when it went to conduct a raid on his house in connection with a fresh case. Saddam’s younger brother Sairul and some miscreants also fired at the policemen to foil the police raid. However, the cops were lucky to escape unhurt despite indiscriminate firing by the miscreants. Two cops had suffered injuries in the scuffle with the villagers, who were mostly women and involved in the cheating racket. Saddam and Sairul managed to escape during the scuffle. Sairul is still absconding.

Later on the day, a reinforced police team, along with the RAF, began a combing operation in the area and arrested two persons. The police also raided Saddam's home when it unearthed an underground concrete tunnel of about 50 meters that connected his bedroom with the Matla river bank.

Sleuths suspected that Saddam managed to flee through the tunnel that he also used to carry out fake gold artefact business. On the Matla river bank, the hidden tunnel looked like a culvert over a drain and often remained unnoticed amid bushes.

Claiming that Saddam was tracked through his mobile tower location, the SP said, "We spotted him at a fishery owned by one Mannan Khan where he took shelter and caught him cordoning the area. Mannan introduced himself as a CPM worker and we arrested him for providing shelter to Saddam.”

Speaking to the reporters SP further said, "Gang members of Saddam used to call the buyers to Paitarhat luring to sell gold artefacts at a low price and robbed them.

Senior CPM leader Sujan Chakraborty refuted SP Baruipur's claim that Saddam was provided shelter by CPM activist Mannan Khan at his fishery. Claiming that there was no such party activist in the name of Mannan Khan in that area, Chakraborty said: "To hide its failure the police has tried to malign the CPM."