Gautam Sarkar, the right-hand man of Wahed Akunji, a terror of the 1990s in the city and its suburbs who died in jail custody a couple of years ago, was arrested on Sunday evening on Bakrahat Road, in the Bishnupur police station area, on the southern fringes of the city.

According to police, Sarkar, who was wanted in more than a dozen murder cases and several other cases of extortion and robbery, was arrested early last year but was out on bail for the last few months.

“Soon after he was out on bail, he murdered Manohar Mollah, father of Pora Khokon, a rival gang member, and had been absconding since,” an officer of the local police station said.

Police were tipped off on Sunday that Sarkar would meet a tannery-owner to collect his share of ‘money’ and laid a trap for him. “Plainclothesmen took position and waited for more than two hours before Sarkar arrived around 8.30 pm. Then, we arrested him. Several rounds of ammunition and a revolver were recovered from him,” the officer added.

Deputy superintendent of police (town) Humayun Kabir said Sarkar confessed to killing Mollah when he did not find Pora Khokon. “He was not arrested, for he looks very unimpressive. Whenever a trap was laid, he gave the cops the slip,” he said.

Akunji was one of those men who had terrorised the entire South and North 24-Parganas and neighbouring districts and was wanted in several cases of murder. “He would often violate the international border with Bangladesh by crossing the Vidya river in Canning and commit a dacoity. He would cross over to evade arrest whenever he committed a crime in the state and had a wide network of criminal links on both sides of the border,” the officer added.

A senior police officer said during interrogation, Sarkar said he used to accompany Akunji on many operations and had a hand in extorting money on his behalf. Sarkar went to Bangladesh with Akunji to commit a dacoity. “We are looking for other members of Sarkar’s gang, who got together after Akunji’s death,” the officer said.

With Sarkar’s arrest, the police have access to information that will lead them to criminals operating in the area. “Sarkar was arrested in 2002 in connection with the murder of Makram Mollah and was released on bail. He tried to bring many criminals together. He has provided us with some leads that we are working on and arrests will follow soon,” he added.