The husband of the former leader of the ruling Scottish National Party (SNP) Nicola Sturgeon, who recently resigned as Scottish Prime Minister, has been arrested as part of an investigation into her party’s finances.

The Scottish police announced today the arrest of a 58-year-old man, who according to the BBC and the PA agency, is the Peter Murrell, husband of Sturgeon.

By mid-March he was director general of the SNP and had then resign from his duties amid a battle over party membership and an internal campaign to elect a new leader.

The police investigation is focused on what became of over £600,000 raised by supporters of Scottish independence in 2017 and which were supposed to be limited to spending on the issue, but were absent from the party’s filed accounts.

The SNP has not yet responded to a Reuters request for comment. The Scottish Government said the matter was a party matter.

Nicola Sterzon, after eight years as Scottish premier and a total of 15 in local government positions, announced her resignation in mid-February to everyone’s surprise, saying she didn’t have much energy.

The departure of the charismatic leader, who had stood resolutely in the battle for independence, weakened the party, which emerged divided from the internal campaign that resulted in the election of 37-year-old Hamza Yousaf last week.

Yousaf is the first Muslim leader one of the nations that make up the United Kingdom and is considered a continuation of Sturgeon’s work, with a line of progressivism on social issues and left on economics. However, he secured only 52% of the vote against the more conservative Kate Forbes.

The change in the prime ministership of Scotland took place at a time when the struggle for independence had gained new momentum but now appears to have reached an impasse.

The Supreme Court rejected the will of Edinburgh to hold a new referendum without London’s approval, following what resulted in a ‘no’ victory on Scottish independence in 2014.