Calcutta, March 15: CPM leader Majid Master, accused in a murder case and declared an absconder, was arrested from Barasat late tonight.

His presence at the CPM state party headquarters on Friday had rattled the Trinamul Congress and prompted it to lodge a complaint with the Election Commission.

Majid was supposed to surrender at the Barasat district court today but he did not, reportedly because plainclothes policemen were waiting in the court compound to arrest him.

Officials of the special operations group then tracked him through the day and finally arrested him from Barasat.

Majid is an accused in the murder of Noor Ali Mollah, who was killed in Sashan on October 27, 2009.

According to police records, Majid is “absconding”. But eyebrows were raised when he visited the CPM’s Alimuddin Street headquarters on Friday while a state committee meeting was under way. Among those present in the meeting was chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.

Majid was accompanying Amitabha Nandy, a CPM strongman in North 24-Parganas and a former MP from Dum Dum.

A source said several complaints of rioting, political violence and criminal conspiracy are pending against Majid.

Sudhir Kumar Rakesh, who had led the six-member special observer team appointed by the Election Commission, received several complaints against Majid. He had then directed the district police chief to arrest Majid, the source added.

Trinamul had approached the poll panel, questioning how Majid could attend a meeting where Bhattacharjee — who is also the state’s home minister — was present if the tainted leader was absconding.

Majid will be produced in court tomorrow.

“We arrested him tonight. We are interrogating him,” Rahul Srivastav, the North 24-Parganas superintendent of police, said.

But CPM leader Nandy, who supposedly brought Majid to Alimuddin Street on Friday, criticised his arrest.

“We will move court against his arrest. It is a concocted case and arresting someone like him is completely unfair,” said Nandy.

District CPM leadership recommended Majid as the candidate from the Haroa Assembly constituency. But his name did not figure in the list of Left Front candidates released on Sunday. Many felt Majid was left out because of the chief minister’s opposition.