Cooch Behar police arrested Sukumar Barman, the president of the BJP’s Sitai-I Mandal, with 79 bottles of banned cough syrup on Thursday night.

A source said a team from the Sahebganj police station, acting on a tip-off, conducted a raid and detained Barman — a resident of Shilduar — from the Shibprasad Mustafi area of the police station. A subsequent search led to the seizure of 79 bottles of a prohibited cough syrup.

The arrest sparked a political controversy. Abhijit Barman, the BJP’s Cooch Behar district president, alleged that the police had nabbed Barman on Thursday afternoon and later implicated him in a false case.

He also claimed that the action was carried out under the instructions of Jagadish Chandra Barma Basunia, the Trinamool Congress MP of Cooch Behar, and the north Bengal development minister Udayan Guha.

“Around 11 BJP workers in the district have been falsely implicated in similar drug cases. Trinamool is resorting to such measures out of fear of losing the upcoming Assembly elections,” said Barman.

Sukumar’s wife claimed that the police had taken him from the locality around 2.30pm.

“We searched for him in different places, including Sitai police station, and lodged a missing person report. We learned about his arrest later,” she said.

Basunia said he was unaware of the case details since he is currently in Calcutta, but mentioned that he knew the accused personally.

“He has been involved in anti-social activities and his parents have complained about his behaviour. If anyone is involved with drugs, the police will take action as per the law. There is no reason to blame Trinamool,” he said over a call.

Police said they have initiated a probe. “Our officers are talking to him to gather more information,” said a senior officer.