Calcutta, Sept. 24: A CPI leader and vice-chairman of Kamarhati municipality has mysteriously disappeared from his residence in Belghoria on the northern fringes of the city.

Prabir Mitra, 45, was last seen walking out of his M.B. Road residence under Belghoria police station around 7.15 am on Friday and has remained untraced 36 hours later.

Police detained two persons and were questioning them for possible leads after Prabir’s wife Gouri Mitra lodged a missing diary on Saturday morning.

“We are trying to find out the exact circumstances leading to the disappearance of Prabir. We are also probing all angles, including the fact that Prabir was involved in several land development projects in the area,” said Praveen Kumar, superintendent of police, North 24-Parganas. “We are not ruling out foul play as so many hours have elapsed and he has not contacted home.”

A senior CPI state secretariat member, Debasish Dutta, said Prabir was an introvert, adding that the councillor would not hesitate from disapproving anything he did not find right.

The police had begun investigating allegations that Prabir had objected to the development of a 31-bigha land in the area, in which other senior leaders of the municipality were interested.

Gouri said everything seemed okay at home. “He told me he was going to the local party office in his ward.”

Prabir’s family members checked with various hospitals and relatives before lodging a missing diary.

Prabir’s younger brother, Pradip Mitra, said the councillor had told him that he would take a private bus that goes to Ariadaha and ward 15, which he represents, but was not sure whether he took it at all.

Locally known as Aju, Prabir is popular in the area and has been a councillor for the last 15 years. He has been the vice-chairman of Kamarhati municipality for the last 10 years.

“He usually visits his ward in Ariadaha three days a week. He would always go on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. If someone wanted to meet him, he would know exactly where to find him. He used to leave around 7 am and return home around 10 pm,” said a senior officer probing the case.

“We have lodged a complaint and they (police) will be able to say if there was any foul play,” said Gobinda Ganguly, chairman of Kamarhati Municipality.

Local MLA Manas Mukherjee, a CPM leader, said Prabir was an active Left Front member and his disappearance was an ominous sign: “Such things are bad before the polls. We have alerted our workers.”

The MLA added his party is extending “every support” to the family of the missing CPI leader. “Our party will do whatever it takes to find him,” he said.

Ganguly said Prabir appeared depressed for the last few days. “He looked tense and was brooding over something,” he said.