Trinamool Congress leader shot dead in West Bengal's Hooghly district on Tuesday
A Trinamool Congress leader heading a municipality in West Bengal's Hooghly district was shot dead while he was going home on a motorbike late on Tuesday night. According to last reports, one person has been arrested and five others detained for questioning.
45-year old Manoj Upadhyay, chairman, Bhadreswar Municipality, was shot from point blank range.
"At least two bullets hit his chest and abdomen. Doctor declared him dead at a local hospital," said Piyush Pande, Commissioner, Chandernagore Police Commissionerate.
The murder has triggered a political slugfest between the ruling Trinamool and the BJP.
Trinamool Minister Tapan Dasgupta alleged that Manoj Upadhyay was murdered by former CPM men who had now joined BJP. "Raju and Ratan, they are behind this murder," he said.
State BJP president Dilip Ghosh said, "Upadhyay was an RSS worker earlier. I used to know him. Maybe he was going to return to BJP and was killed to stop that. May be he was killed as Trinamool people were not being able to make money because of Upadhyay. If you can't make money, you can't be a leader."
This, in turn, provoked minister Firhad Hakim to say, "A certain force is raising its head in Bengal... We have told police to find them. We will not allow the politics of murder in Bengal."
Bhadreshwar remained tense all of Wednesday. Among Trinamool leaders who rushed there to contain the situation was MP and Mamata Banerjee nephew Abhishek Banerjee.
"I promise all culprits would be arrested in 48 hours. Not just arrested, I will request the chief minister to ensure an early charge sheet and death penalty," he said.
Police would not comment on motives but confirmed they had clues and names. The murder took place just a stone's throw away from the Bhadreshwar police station.