According to the police, the arrested man has been identified as Rajaram Rege. “He had done recce of Abhishek Banerjee’s office and residence. He tried to get in touch with his PA as well. From April 18 to 20, he was in a hotel in Kolkata’s Shakespeare Sarani. We arrested him in Mumbai. He is the same man who had met Mumbai attack accused David Headly,” said Murlidhar Sharma, Additional Commissioner of Police (1).

In 2016, David Coleman Headley told a special court in Mumbai he had struck a friendship with a man called Rajaram Rege who claimed to be Uddhav Thackeray’s public relations officer to gain access to the Shiv Sena headquarters.

Headley said he had met Rege for the first time inside Shiv Sena Bhavan. “This was early in 2007. I thought that in the future, Lashkar would be interested in attacking the Shiv Sena or assassinating its head. At that time, I thought that LeT would want to target it,” he said in court via video link from the US.

Rege later said he met Headley outside the Sena Bhawan for two minutes and declined his request to gain access to the building.

During a campaign in Balurghat on Sunday, Mamata Banerjee claimed “the BJP had been targeting” her and Abhishek Banerjee. The remark came a day after BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari said there would be a “big explosion on Monday which will shake the TMC and its top brass”. He later clarified he was referring to a political upheaval.

“We are not safe, but we are also not afraid of the saffron party’s conspiracy. We urge everyone to be on guard against a conspiracy against TMC leaders and the people of West Bengal,” she said.