A policeman standing in a clothing warehouse… Rummaging through a pile of sarees. And emerges from beneath the pile, a man in a purple shirt: TMC worker Brahmananda Chakraborty. A video of his arrest is now viral on social media.

Chakraborty was arrested from a saree warehouse in the Bilaspur area of Udaynarayanpur, Howrah district on Saturday. He was hiding there in an alleged attempt to evade arrest after a complaint was filed against him early on Saturday at the Udaynarayanpur police station.

The complainants, said to be local area residents, alleged that the TMC worker took “cut money” from them in exchange for providing benefits under a government housing scheme. Several residents complained that they were asked to pay extra money to receive the scheme’s benefits, after which a police complaint was filed against the party worker.

Following the complaint, the police initiated an investigation into the matter. As the likelihood of his arrest increased, the accused allegedly arrived at a clothing store in the area, where he hid under a pile of sarees kept in the godown.

However the police had already received information about his movements. The investigation team located the shop and conducted a thorough search after which it was found that Chakraborty was hiding under a pile of sarees in the godown in an attempt to evade arrest, said police.

The police personnel rummaged through the sarees to arrest the TMC worker. A video of the bizarre incident has caught eyeballs online.

It is learnt that Chakraborty was also accused in a post-poll violence incident after the 2021 Assembly elections in the state. Local BJP leaders told PTI that complaints regarding his alleged involvement in the 2021 post-poll violence incidents had been pending for several years.

The arrest drew comparisons with a similar incident in Cooch Behar’s Mathabhanga on May 4, when police arrested local TMC leader Shahidul Miah after allegedly pulling him out from under a bed where he had been hiding.