A Bidhannagar court on Friday issued an arrest warrant against the block development officer (BDO) of Rajganj, Prasanta Barman, as he did not surrender before the court within the deadline set earlier by Calcutta High Court.

The high court on Monday cancelled Barman’s anticipatory bail, and he was asked to surrender before the additional chief judicial magistrate (ACJM), Bidhannagar, in next 72 hours.

Since the Rajganj BDO did not surrender, the ACJM issued the arrest warrant on Friday after Bidhannagar police appealed for it, citing the high court’s deadline.

A lawyer who appeared for the police said they suspected Barman was absconding.

The warrant issued by the ACJM empowers the police to arrest the BDO.

Barman had been named as an accused in the murder of jeweller Swapan Kamilla.

Barman and his associates allegedly went to Duttabad in Salt Lake on October 28 and kidnapped Kamilla in a beacon-fitted car and took him to a building at New Town where the BDO often stayed when he was in the city.

Kamilla’s family had alleged that Barman was looking for him after he came to know that gold ornaments stolen from his house had been handed over to Kamilla.

His body was found in an abandoned stretch in New Town on October 29.

The police have arrested five men in this case and charged them with murder.

Barman, the sixth accused in the case, had moved the sessions court in North 24-Parganas and obtained anticipatory bail.

Challenging the bail, the state had moved the Bidhannagar ACJM’s court. However, the Bidhannagar court had upheld the sessions court’s order.

It was then that the state moved the high court.

On Monday, Justice Tirthankar Ghosh of the high court cancelled Barman’s anticipatory bail.

“The order of bail passed is hereby cancelled. The accused/opposite party is directed to surrender before the learned ACJM, Bidhannagar, forthwith, preferably within 72 hours,” Justice Ghosh said in his order.