The vice president of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s West Bengal unit has been arrested for allegedly taking money from School Service Commission candidates in lieu of job promise. The police took Jayprakash Majumdar into custody after questioning him for more than seven hours on Saturday at the Bidhannagar North police station, reported IANS.

Majumdar has been charged under sections 420 (cheating), 406 (criminal breach of trust) and 506 (threat to cause death or grievous hurt) of the Indian Penal Code. “During questioning, Majumdar denied several things despite being presented with evidence. We then decided to arrest him,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police Santosh Pandey told The Times of India.

Majumder allegedly took Rs 7.2 lakh from the SSC candidates. The BJP leader was picked up after an SSC candidate, Arup Ratan Roy, lodged a complaint in August last year, reported Hindustan Times.

Complaint Roy told IANS that Majumdar had asked for money after promising the candidates that he would file a case in the Supreme Court. “Majumdar met us during a hunger strike [that] we had organised near the School Service Commission office to demand jobs. He said give me around Rs 8-10 lakh and I will help you to get the job by filing a case in the Supreme Court. We handed over Rs 7.20 lakh to him. But after three months, he completely denied taking any money from us,” he said. The complainant added that Majumdar even threatened them with a revolver when they visited his office.

Majumdar, who is also the spokesperson of the party state unit, refuted all allegations. He said his arrest was a political move. “It’s all lies. There can be no reason other than political,” said the politician who had quit the Congress to join the BJP in 2014.

State BJP chief Dilip Ghosh distanced the party from the incident. He said that even if Majumdar was involved in the case, it happened before he joined the BJP. “Our party is in no way responsible for this,” said Ghosh.