Gangtok, Mar 12: The prime suspect in the Taraman Chettri murder case was arrested here last night, nearly four years after the body of the general secretary of the Sikkim Pradesh Congress Committee was found in Sevoke, near Siliguri.

Pardeep Sewa Darjee was picked up by the Sadar police at 5th Mile Tadong, near Gangtok. After his arrest, Darjee “confessed” to the crime. He will be handed over to the Matigara police station under whose jurisdiction the crime took place and the case was registered, a police source said.

Darjee, originally a resident of Nepal, had been living in Khamdong in East Sikkim since childhood. He had fled to Qatar in West Asia after the murder and worked there for two years.

In 2007, Darjee moved to Kathmandu where he worked as a driver and had recently come to Darjeeling. Apparently thinking that the murder case has been shelved, he reached Jorethang in South Sikkim via Pashupati before proceeding to Gangtok.

The East district police chief, M.S. Tuli, confirmed the arrest.

Chettri and his friend Pemba Lepcha, both residents of Turuk in South Sikkim, were on a business trip to Siliguri and travelling in a pickup van (SK 03/2286) on December 18, 2004. They were carrying around Rs 4.4 lakh in cash with them.

“As Chettri and Lepcha, a teacher in Melli in South Sikkim, approached 10th Mile near Sevoke, they were waylaid by the accused who dragged them out onto the road from the vehicle and murdered them,” the source said.

An illicit relationship between Darjee and the Congress leader’s wife, Dilu, was said to be the reason for the murder. The woman, who was arrested earlier, is presently out on bail. “Four persons including the prime suspect Darjee had been declared wanted after the double murder,” the source said.

The murder had sparked a political row in the state with the state Congress chief, Nar Bahadur Bandari, asking the central leaders for a CBI inquiry.