Lucknow, Jan. 13: A BSP legislator accused of raping a teenager gave himself up before police this afternoon but not before slipping out of Lucknow to foil Mayavati’s plan to make a trophy arrest, throwing police into a tizzy and triggering a caste grumble in Uttar Pradesh.

Purushottam Naresh Dwivedi, the MLA from Banda district in Bundelkhand, walked up to Attara police station this afternoon and “submitted himself” to the law.

The police in Lucknow heaved a sigh of relief when the Brahmin MLA from Narayani constituency in Banda surrendered and was taken into custody.

Dwivedi was supposed to have been arrested in Lucknow last night with the help of an influential minister in the Mayavati cabinet. The chief minister had once summoned an MP and got him arrested to send a message on law and order, one of the planks on which she had fought the last Assembly elections.

But Dwivedi allegedly slipped out of the state capital around 7pm, telling the police that he would submit himself soon after making a call to his family.

As the police waited for him, the MLA came out of a guesthouse and got into his car that hit the Kanpur-Banda road. The police then scouted around in the city but could not find him.

The MLA, accused of raping a girl and then getting her framed in a theft case, resurfaced this afternoon in Banda, met members of his family and reached Attara police station.

Unaware of the developments, director-general of police Karamveer Singh told reporters at 4pm that some more time would be needed to arrest the MLA.

Half an hour later, Karamveer Singh confirmed the arrest and said: “We told you he would be arrested. He is in our custody now. We took a little more time than you expected.”

Dwivedi’s two associates, Rajendra Shukla and Surendra Neta, were arrested earlier this morning while Ravan Garg, another suspect, was held along with the minister.

Dwivedi, the BSP’s lone Brahmin MLA from Banda, and the three associates are accused of gangraping the minor girl from Nishad community on the intervening night of December 11 and 12 at the legislator’s home.

The MLA, in his late forties and father of two children, had earlier declared himself “impotent” to ward off the charge of rape but medical examination proved otherwise.

Called to Lucknow by the minister close to him, Dwivedi had yesterday refused to go to the chief minister’s residence for fear of another “dramatic arrest” modelled on the capture of the party’s former MP, Ramakant Yadav, who was arrested in June 2007.

The minister, who is also from Banda, wanted to give Dwivedi time to approach the high court to seek bail, sources said.

But leaders of the girl’s Nishad community conveyed their resentment to the chief minister. They informed the government that tempers were running high in Banda as the Brahmin MLA was not arrested till noon. The community leaders met another senior minister from Banda, Nasimuddin Siddique.

Bundelkhand, which includes Banda, is said to have over 5 per cent Nishad voters who are seen as BSP supporters.

Around 2pm, Mayavati sent a stern message to the minister through Siddique. The minister was asked to persuade Dwivedi to make himself available to the police.

The gangrape has caused a whirlwind of adverse publicity for the BSP, triggering some fissures in the party’s axis of Dalits, Brahmins, backward classes and extremely backward classes in Bundelkhand. The region is one of the BSP’s oldest support bases in Uttar Pradesh.

If mischief-makers fish in troubled waters, Mayavati may face some resentment from the upper castes as this is the third Brahmin MLA to be arrested by her government in connection with criminal cases, two linked to rapes.

But a BSP leader said the chief minister “has taken into confidence the leaders of the Brahmin lobby before ordering arrest of the MLA”.