Lucknow/Guwahati, July 23: The prime accused in the Guwahati molestation case, Amarjyoti Kalita, was arrested from a hotel in Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh this afternoon.

Senior superintendent of police (city) Anand Prakash Tiwari confirmed Kalita’s arrest. The 31-year-old accused was on the run for a fortnight after committing the crime on the night of July 9.

A team of Assam police has already left for Varanasi with the case diary and other relevant papers of the case to bring him to the city. “Kalita will be brought to Guwahati after completing the legal formalities,” Tiwari said.

The accused, who was arrested from Lanka, 275km east of Lucknow, is likely to be produced in Varanasi court tomorrow. Assam police will seek him in transit remand to bring him to Guwahati.

Badrinath Singh, inspector-general of police (law and order), Uttar Pradesh, told reporters in Lucknow that the Varanasi police arrested Kalita this afternoon “on the basis of a tip-off provided to us by the Guwahati police”.

“Guwahati police traced his telephone somewhere near a hotel in Varanasi’s Lanka area this morning and quickly conveyed this to us. A team of plainclothes raided the hotel and arrested the prime accused of the Guwahati incident,” he said.

“We carried out preliminary interrogation after arrest and he reconfirmed his identity as Amarjyoti Kalita. Interrogations to fix his exact role are on and a team of Guwahati police is expected to join us soon. These officers from Guwahati will take him back to the scene of crime on transit remand. He will be produced in the court at Varanasi tomorrow,” Singh said.

Unofficial sources said Kalita, whose cell phone showed he was somewhere near Calcutta three days ago, might have taken a train to Varanasi.

The police suspect he went to Varanasi as this congested, crowded city with narrow roads makes it difficult to track a suspect here. The Lanka area, near Ganga’s old ghats, is dotted with hotels.

Police said Kalita was seen on a railway CCTV footage in Calcutta three days ago. A team of Assam police are there and are examining the footage. A police officer in Varanasi said he was carrying a bag of dirty clothes. “During interrogation he was cool and cooperated with the police.” With Kalita’s arrest, the number of persons arrested in connection with this case has gone up to 14.

In Sivasagar, members of 22 organisations demanded justice for a girl who was allegedly molested by an army jawan at Dholpagaon on July 14. They will stage a protest by walking half naked on the main streets here on Wednesday.