The sleaze racket bust in Salt Lake took on a political hue with the arrest of two Youth Congress activists in connection with Tuesday’s attack on CPM MP Jyotirmoyee Sikdar’s house in Salt Lake.

Kumaresh Ghatak and Joy Dutta were picked up late on Tuesday from their homes — Ghatak from near tank no. 6 and Dutta from AD block — by officers of Bidhannagar (East) police station. The two were granted bail on Wednesday by the chief judicial magistrate’s court in Barrackpore.

“We have started a specific case in connection with the incident and arrested these two persons,” confirmed Praveen Kumar, superintendent of police, North 24-Parganas.

Local Congress leaders, however, alleged that police had failed to trace the real culprits and were out to harass their supporters.“Police ransacked the houses of these two Congress supporters and beat up their relatives without provocation,” alleged a local leader. Police denied the allegation.

A mob had descended on the Sikdar residence around 1.30 pm on Tuesday, in taxis and two-wheelers. The protestors parked themselves outside CL-242 and started off by shouting slogans against the athlete-turned-MP and her husband Avtar Singh.

They then hurled stones and bricks, smashing windowpanes and damaging a car. Following the attack, a police picket was posted outside the Salt Lake address.

In another development, the signboard of Hotel Merlin Park, the Salt Lake establishment at the centre of the Avtar Singh controversy, was pulled down on Wednesday.

Police said they did not have a clue as to who dismantled the board. “We have heard about this, but we do not know who brought the signboard down,” claimed an officer.

The protests promise to spill on to the streets on Thursday, with the Bidhannagar block Trinamul Congress planning to block roads off Salt Lake’s bustling PNB island from 10 am.

“We will demand closure of the hotel,” said Sabyasachi Dutta, Trinamul councillor of Bidhannagar Municipality.