Two Trinamool Congress leaders, including a former minister's brother, were arrested in Malda on Monday night and Tuesday in connection with separate cases.

On Tuesday, a Harishchandrapur police team arrested Jammu Rahman, the younger brother of former minister of state Tajmul Hossain, following a complaint accusing him of taking money from a person on the promise of arranging the sale of a government plot.

Police sources said a villager, Ekaramul Haque, of Dumuria in Harishchandrapur, alleged in a written complaint that in 2023, Rahman had promised he would arrange a two-cottah government plot at Garhari in Harishchandrapur for him.

Haque alleged that he initially paid ₹2 lakh for the plot and later paid an additional ₹30,000 to Trinamool’s party fund on Rahman's demand.

“I neither got the plot nor my money back. The former minister’s brother even threatened to implicate me in a false case when I demanded a refund. So I lodged a written complaint against him,” Haque said.

Former minister Hossain refuted the allegations and claimed his brother had been falsely implicated.

On Monday night, a Kaliachak police team arrested Bakul Sheikh, a Trinamool leader and president of the party’s Naoda-Jadupur area committee, in connection with the seizure of a large consignment of contraband in May this year.

“The consignment was being smuggled to Bangladesh, and a couple of smugglers were arrested. During interrogation, his name surfaced, and he was subsequently arrested. He had been absconding since the seizure,” a police officer said.

Sheikh denied the charges. “I was sleeping at home when the police came and arrested me. I have no connection with the smuggling of the contraband,” he claimed.

The police, however, alleged that many old cases involving clashes, bombings, murder and other serious offences were pending against Sheikh.