One Dead, Several Injured as Violence Continues in Bengal; TMC, BJP Blame Each Other

Kolkata: One person was stabbed to death while several others were injured as political violence continued in West Bengal on Sunday, the police said.

Reports of houses being ransacked and activists of both the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the ruling Trinamool Congress sustaining injuries surfaced through the day.

A 36-year-old man, said to be a BJP worker, was stabbed to death in Baduria in North 24 Parganas district. "Ajay Mondol, 37, was stabbed on Sunday morning when he stepped out of his residence," an officer at the Baduria police station said. However, he added that the complaint did not mention any political connection and that the matter was under investigation.

A Trinamool Congress party office was ransacked in Diamond Harbour in South 24 Parganas district. In another incident, a Trinamool member was beaten up on Saturday in Ghola in North 24 Parganas district. Two people have been arrested in connection with the case, the police said.

Meanwhile, BJP MP from Barrackpore Arjun Singh protested against the police restoring to lathi charge in North 24 Parganas district by holding demonstrations outside few local police stations.

"Since the time Mamata Banerjee's candidates tasted defeat in the Lok Sabha polls, the police and other miscreants are beating up our workers and ransacking their houses. The officers in Amdanga and Duttapukur police stations are even interrogating people for joining the BJP," he said.

Singh, who defeated Trinamool's Dinesh Trivedi to win the Barrackpore seat, also alleged that the police were threatening to "arrest and file false cases against BJP workers".

Trinamool leader Alo Rani Sarkar, on the other hand, alleged that bike-borne BJP supporters roamed outside her residence in Kanchrapara in North 24 Parganas district and threatened some of her party workers with dire consequences over the phone.

"There were as many as four people on a single bike raising 'Jai Shri Ram' chants. But since Rapid Action Force (RAF) officers were inside the gate, they couldn't do anything. They also threatened to kill our party workers. Their main aim is to help Mukul Roy and his son Subhrangshu Roy continue terrorising people in the Bijpur area," Sarkar said.

However, the local police denied receiving any such complaints.

A clash between BJP and Trinamool workers was also reported from Pidra village in Purulia district.

In another incident, some Trinamool workers were allegedly injured in Arambagh in Hooghly district while the disturbance in East Medinipur district's Khejuri continued on Sunday.

On Saturday, a Trinamool party office was vandalised, allegedly by BJP workers, in Khejuri, which is notorious for political violence. Some police vehicles were also damaged by the agitators.