Islampur, April 16: Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) sleuths probing the Nobel medallion theft have arrested one Madan Mohan Singh from Katihar in adjacent Bihar.

According to police, Singh, an influential railway union leader, was picked up by the CBI team, accompanied by the district police, from his residence in Railway Colony I early yesterday. Though none of the items stolen from Santiniketan’s Bichitra Bhavan was found from Singh’s residence, police have seized two modern firearms and a large quantity of live ammunition.

Kishanganj district police superintendent Amit Jain said the CBI team was led by officer Debashis Ghosh. He was accompanied by officer-in-charge of the Katihar Sadar police station, Ashok Kumar Singh, who led a large contingent of policemen during the raid. “I believe CBI officers who grilled Singh throughout the day yesterday have found some vital leads in the Nobel theft case. They also collected his fingerprints to see whether they matched the ones found at the site of the crime,” Jain said. He added that the leads found while questioning the arrested person could not be disclosed for the sake of the investigation.

Even though Jain stated that the raid was in connection with the medallion theft, CBI sources in Santiniketan and Calcutta did not comment on the matter. A senior CBI officer said that there was “nothing to comment on the arrest” at this point of time. He, however, confirmed that the CBI had arrested Singh with the help of Bihar police.

Singh was produced before the chief judicial magistrate at Katihar yesterday and he was remanded to judicial custody for 14 days. Police sources said the CBI did not want custody of the arrested person as the interrogation had gone off “satisfactorily. He has been charged with fraud and the CBI has the “reason to believe” his involvement in the Tagore memorabilia theft. Singh has been charged with illegal possession of arms as well.

Sources added that CBI sleuths believed that they have found “vital” leads that might turn the investigative focus to Bihar. Police and CBI sleuths grilled Visva-Bharati garden superintendent Abhoy Mahapatra, held in connection with the breaking of the lock of Udyan Bhavan, discovered on Saturday, April 9, reports our correspondent in Santiniketan.

Birbhum police superintendent Akhil Roy said “circumstantial evidence has been gathered” against Mahapatra in the Udyan Bhavan incident.