Social activist Medha Patkar and Bharatiya Janata Party president Rajnath Singh were on Monday detained along with other top BJP leaders from West Bengal on their way to Singur, where fencing work at the Tata Motors small car project site continued amid strong police presence.

Singh, who arrived in Kolkata on Monday, was stopped by police at Maitipara on Durgapur Expressway, 25 km away from Singur and arrested along with state party president Sukumar Banerjee and secretary Rahul Sinha under section 151 Cr PC. They were freed on bail immediately, Hooghly police superintendent Supratim Sarkar said.

Patkar, who had set forth from the city by local train with two others, had disembarked at Sheoraphuli station on Howrah-Bandel section and had reached Purushottampur, 10 km away from Singur, by autorickshaw when policemen stopped her, threw a cordon and took her forcibly to Dankuni. She is being kept at the CIL guest house at Dankuni. This is the third time that Patkar has been prevented by the police from reaching Singur in less than a week.