June 13: A Trinamul councillor of the Howrah Municipal Corporation was arrested this morning in connection with the murder of a guard in June last year.

Sailesh Rai, who represents Ward 29 in the civic body, has been remanded in police custody for seven days.

Police said Rai had got Bijay Mullick, who worked as a guard at a highrise in Howrah's Mullick Fatak, killed after a row over a realty project.

"Mullick had a plot which some promoters in the locality wanted to buy to build a residential block. But he refused to sell it," an officer of Howrah police station said.

"Contract killers hired by Rai shot Mullick at point-blank range in front of the highrise where he worked," the officer said.

Five men were arrested in connection with the murder.

"Rai's name emerged while we were interrogating the accused. Our probe revealed that the councillor was hand in glove with the promoters who were eyeing the plot and reached a deal with them to ensure they got the plot," another officer working on the case said.

Police sources said senior officers decided to confront Rai only after a preliminary probe threw up evidence of his involvement in the murder.

"We asked the councillor to turn up at Howrah police station this morning. He failed to give satisfactory replies to some of the questions related to the murder that the investigators asked him. It was then that the officers decided to arrest him," an officer said.

The police are yet to find out the amount of money the five alleged contract killers had been paid for the job.

"More persons are likely to be arrested. We will question Rai over the seven days he will be in our custody and more names are likely to emerge," the officer said.

Rai is not the first Trinamul councillor arrested on murder charge. Two Calcutta Municipal Corporation councillors - Mohammad Iqbal and Shambhunath Kow - had earlier been rounded up for murder.

Mohammad Iqbal, alias Munna, had been arrested in March 2013 in connection with the murder of police officer Tapas Chowdhury during a clash in front of a Garden Reach college. Kow had been arrested in April 2013 on the charge of murdering party colleague Adhir Maity.

Agriculture marketing minister Arup Roy, who looks after Trinamul's Howrah unit, said Rai had joined the party from the Congress. "Law will take its course," he said.