A BJP leader accused of shooting dead one person at a meeting in Ballia was on Sunday morning arrested apparently while he was jogging in a park in Lucknow 400km away and three days after the murder.

The special task force in Lucknow arrested Dhirendra Pratap Singh, the president of the Ballia unit of the BJP’s ex-servicemen cell, around 7am at Janeshwar Mishra Park. Dhirendra is accused of shooting dead fellow villager Jai Prakash Pal during a meeting on Thursday in Ballia’s Durjanpur after opening fire to settle a dispute over bagging the contract for a ration shop.

Jai Prakash’s family had accused the police of allowing Dhirendra to escape. The local BJP MLA, Surendra Nath Singh, had demanded “justice” for Dhirendra, threatened to begin an agitation if Jai Prakash’s supporters were not booked and claimed that Dhirendra had opened fire in self-defence.

“The main accused in the unfortunate incident of murder at Durjanpur village in Ballia district was arrested by the special task force in Lucknow on Sunday. Ballia police are bringing him back from Lucknow for interrogation,” said Subhas Chandra Dubey, the deputy inspector-general of police of Azamgarh.

A police officer in Lucknow said on the condition of anonymity: “Dhirendra was arrested while he was jogging.”

An eyewitness claimed that he saw two police jeeps stopping in front of the park and Dhirendra trotting out of the gate and getting into one of the vehicles.

BJP sources said the leadership had sought an explanation from Surendra, the Bairia MLA, for threatening an agitation and backing Dhirendra, an aide.

“The party will take action against the MLA if he has done something wrong,” said Naveen Srivastava, a spokesperson for the Uttar Pradesh BJP.

DIG Dubey, who had on Friday announced a reward of Rs 50,000 to those who would help the police trace eight absconding accused, said: “Before Dhirendra’s arrest in Lucknow, Ballia police had nabbed two co-accused, Santosh Yadav and Amarjeet Yadav, from the Kotwali area of Ballia city. Two more were arrested from Ballia on Friday. We hope to arrest the remaining three identified accused soon.”

A total of 20 people — eight named and 12 unidentified — have been named in the FIR.

The DIG said the government would take action against Dhirendra under the stringent National Security Act.