The state government on Friday said Gopal Tiwari was "directly involved" in the violence leading to a police officer being shot in the chest in the Girish Park area on the day of the Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC) polls.

The additional chief metropolitan magistrate, Anjan Kumar Sarkar, rejected Tiwari's bail plea and sent him to police custody till June 10.

Opposing Tiwari's bail prayer, public prosecutor Subhendu Ghosh said that "three witnesses" have already recorded statements before the magistrate naming the Burrabazar don in the April 18 trouble that ended with sub-inspector Jagannath Mandal suffering a bullet injury that fortunately did not prove fatal.

"Tiwari was directly involved in the case and that is why he had been absconding for over a month. The three witnesses had seen him near the spot in Girish Park where the shooting had taken place. We have also recorded statements of some others who have said that Tiwari had supplied arms to the criminals on the day of the shooting," Ghosh said before the court.

"Police are still searching for seven persons whose names have come up during the interrogation. Tiwari can help the police track them," he added.

Clad in the same yellow tee and blue trousers that he was wearing when police arrested him from a Baguiati hotel on Thursday night, Tiwari reached Bankshal court, near Strand Road, a little after 2pm. His face was covered with a gamchha as policemen pulled him out of a police jeep and took him to the court lock-up.

An officer accompanying Tiwari said he had been charged under Sections 307 (attempt to murder), 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon), 149 (offence committed by any member of an unlawful assembly) of the Indian Penal Code and also sections under Arms Act and Explosives Act. If found guilty, he can be imprisoned for life.

The officer added that during his arrest, he was carrying a small bag that had two T-shirts, a vest, an under wear, a trouser, a bath towel, a Hanuman Chalisa, mobile phone and Rs. 1700 in cash. "However, no credit or debit card was found with him," said the officer.

After the hearing began almost an hour later, Tiwari's lawyer, Lokesh Sharma said that Tiwari was not named in the FIR lodged by the officer-in-charge of Girish Park and was no where near the spot when the shooting had taken place. "The officer had named two persons but even though Tiwari is so famous in the area and police know him by face, his name was not mentioned in the original FIR. My client is a man of repute, is ailing and has recently had a surgery and so the court should grant him bail," said Sharma, while producing medical documents to prove that he had a surgery at the rectum, three months ago and is suffering from diabetes.

Sharma also added that the arms dump police had seized from the guard's room in Tiwari's Pathuriaghata apartment building did not belong to him and that police should actually catch the guard and not blame it on him.

Incidentally on May 2, police had seized four guns, 100 bullets and explosives from the guard's room on the ground floor. Tiwari's apartment is on the second floor of the six-storeyed building. One of the guns found among the lot was similar to the pistol that was used in the attack on sub-inspector Jagannath Mandal, police sources had said.

The magistrate rejected Sharma's prayer after listening to the state counsel's submission as Tiwari

Magistrate Sarkar however, accepted three petitions made by Sharma -- first, to allow him to be present during Tiwari's police interrogation; secondly to allow Tiwari have his daily medicines and thirdly to allow him change into a fresh pair of clothes and have a bath.