May 1: A 32-year-old man has been arrested in connection with a late-night brawl that took place at Shimmers nightclub in Sector V on Holi eve.

Gaurav Jaiswal, a resident of Salt Lake's BA Block, has also been accused of taking money from the owner of the club apparently to "manage police officers" so that he could run the establishment well beyond the stipulated time.

Police said Jaiswal had been picked up from a hotel on EM Bypass following specific information that he had been staying there for the past several days.

Jaiswal had been missing since the brawl and the subsequent crackdown on Sector V night spots that illegally stayed open beyond the stipulated time.

According to an officer of the Bidhannagar commissionerate, Jaiswal had allegedly taken money from the owner of the nightclub, Jagjit Singh, who is currently in jail, after telling him that he would be able to persuade police officers to look the other way while the club remained open in violation of rules.

On Holi eve, the brawl had broken out at 4.29am, well past the closing time.

CCTV cameras installed in the building housing the nightclub captured the fight. Zoheb Khan, a resident of Elliot Lane, suffered a head injury in the brawl.

The cops probing the case arrested several people, including the director of the Spice Garden group, Jagjit Singh, and several employees of the bar.

A resident of Baguiati who had allegedly promised to help Singh "settle" the matter was rounded up, too.

The police said Jaiswal had managed to give them the slip so long because he had not been living at his house after the incident. He had also switched off his cell phones, which prevented the cops from tracking down his location.

Jaiswal's name cropped up several times during the interrogation of the other accused.

"He had fled his house after the brawl. We put him under electronic surveillance but his phones were switched off. We received a specific tip-off that he was staying in the hotel and we managed to nab him," said Santosh Pandey, deputy commissioner, detective department, Bidhannagar commissionerate.

The nightclub and several bars run by Singh were sealed.