The security forces arrested Sunil Mahto, a key accused in the Jnaneswari Express derailment case, from Midnapore West district, a senior police official said.
Mahto, a railway contractor by profession, allegedly supplied people who uprooted pandrol clips from tracks causing derailment and subsequent death of 148 passengers on May 28 last year.
Mahto, who had been chargesheeted by the CBI in the case in November, was arrested from Manikpara Bazar locality under Jhargram police station on Tuesday evening,
A resident of Kalojhria village near Manikpara, Mahto will be produced before the chief judicial magistrate's court on Wednesday.