With the arrest of one person on Thursday night the number of those arrested in connection with the murder of Madan Tamang in Darjeeling on May 21 has risen to three.
While the man is stated to be an activist of the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM) the police are checking on the political antecedents of the other two who were arrested earlier, D.P. Singh, District Superintendent of Police, told The Hindu over phone on Friday.
Those who were arrested earlier had suffered bullet wounds when fired at by bodyguards of Tamang during the attack on the political leader and are admitted in a hospital.
Tamang was stabbed to death while supervising arrangements for a public meeting organised by the Akhil Bharatiya Gorkha League (ABGL) which he was to have addressed.
He was president of the ABGL, a political grouping opposed to the GJM.
While it is suspected that the GJM activists were behind the killing, the leadership of the party has denied any connection and even called for a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation into the incident.
The police are on the look out for others suspected to have been behind the killing. Some of them could have fled to neighbouring Sikkim.
The help of the police administration there has been sought in this regard.
West Bengal's Criminal Investigation Department is investigating the murder.
Thirteen persons were named in a first information report by ABGL general secretary Laxman Pradhan.
