Jalpaiguri: A 28-year -old BJP worker was found hacked to death at Dinhata in Cooch Behar district of West Bengal on Sunday, leading to a war of words between Trinamool Congress and the saffron party. While BJP blamed Trinamool for Sambhu Das’s murder, TMC claimed it was the result of a “personal feud”.
The murder comes a day after the death of Trinamool worker Mostafa Sheikh (62) in Malda’s Sujapur. Angry TMC workers had blocked NH-12 in protest. Sambhu’s sister-in-law Bisakha is BJP’s panchayat poll candidate and he had been her proposer during the nomination process. Sambhu’s family alleged that he had gone out of his house to relieve himself when he wa sattacked by armed men. He fled the area and was found hacked to death in a jute field nearby. Sambhu’s relatives alleged that he was getting calls to withdraw Bisakha’s nomination.
Junior Union home minister and Cooch Behar MP Nisith Pramanik said: “People are being tortured across the state and democracy is being trampled here. It is the same feature each election - opposition candidates are forced to withdraw their nominations.” He accused Trinamool of trying to create an atmosphere of fear and intimidation.
3 others killed
Earlier, 3 persons were shot dead and several others were injured as violence and arson marked the conclusion of nomination filing for the three-tier West Bengal panchayat polls slated next month.
Two persons were killed at Bhangore in South 24 Parganas district, around 30 km from Kolkata, while another youth was gunned down by miscreants at Chopra in Uttar Dinajpur district, around 50 Km from Siliguri, in the northern part of the state, police said. Several incidents of clashes were reported from different parts of the state as the police had a harrowing time controlling the situation.