Jaipur police, with help from their Howrah counterparts, swooped on a Golabari apartment on Friday morning and arrested a member of an inter-state kidnap gang, Amit Srivastava.

Howrah superintendent of police Rajesh Kumar said a Jaipur team arrived on Friday and rounded up Srivastava from his Khetra Mitra Lane residence, in the Golabari area.

Srivastava was caught unwares and did not resist the arrest. “His wife and children were in the apartment at the time,’’ Kumar said.

Jaipur superintendent of police Sanjay Agarwal told Metro over the phone that Srivastava was wanted for his role in the kidnap of a businessman in the Moti Dongri police station area.

“We suspect he is also involved in the recent kidnap of businesswoman Ratna Durlavji from Jaipur. The woman remains untraced and we hope to extract some information on her from Srivastava,’’ said a senior detective of Jaipur police.

The Jaipur police team will take Srivastava to Rajasthan for interrogation.

According to special superintendent of police, special operations group of the CID, Manoj Malaviya, Srivastava is a criminal from Chhapra, in Bihar, and a close associate of kidnap kingpin Joginder Singh.

A special investigative team, comprising officers from the anti-crime branch of the police of six states, had arrested Joginder from Morena, in Madhya Pradesh, on Thursday.

He was brought to Bilaspur on Friday for interrogation. Durg’s superinendent of police Ashok Juneja, quoting initial investigations, said Srivastava financed the gang and always had a fleet of cars ready for the gang to ferry the hostages.

“Joginder confessed to his and his associates’ involvement in six inter-state abductions. He furnished us with details on the activities and whereabouts of the other gang-members, including Srivastava,’’ Juneja said.

Deputy superintendent of police, CID, Tanmoy Roy Choudhury, who is coordinating with the crime branch officers of the other states, said Srivastava had done his Master’s in chemistry and was computer-savvy. “We had earlier picked him up for interrgation but he got away on bail,’’ Roy Choudhury added.

The gang-members seldom met to discuss their plan of action. “They would interact on the Net in code,’’ Malaviya said.

Jaipur and Durg police said the special investigation team had impounded three cars used to kidnap people from Calcutta, Durgapur, Asansol and Bilaspur.

Srivastava had arrived in the city six years ago and rented an apartment on B.B. Ganguly Street, in central Calcutta. “He opened a garage and began repairing and selling old cars. But the vehicles were actually used to shift hostages from one place to another,’’ Malaviya said.