india

Updated: Feb 10, 2019 07:06 IST

Trinamool Congress legislator Satyajit Biswas was shot dead in Nadia district on Saturday evening when he went to attend a programme to inaugurate a Saraswati puja. Biswas, 37, Krishnaganj MLA, was shot dead around 7:30 pm when he went to attend the programme at Phulbari about 140 km from Kolkata.

Minister Ratna Ghosh and Gourishankar Dutta, president of Nadia Trinamool Congress unit, were also present on the dais. The incident happened minutes after they left the spot. As Biswas came down from the dais, criminals, who seemed to be within the crowd, shot him multiple times from close range and managed to escape.

Biswas was rushed to a hospital where doctors declared him “brought dead”. “We have recovered the country made revolver used to fire on the MLA,” said Rupesh Kumar, superintendent of police of Nadia district.

Trinamool leaders immediately blamed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the killing.

“Satyajit was a dear party colleague of mine. Words are failing me. Recently BJP leaders have tried to create disturbance in the area and stoke tension. There was a carefully orchestrated plan to eliminate Satyajit that is designed to benefit the BJP,” alleged Trinamool secretary general Partha Chatterjee.

“The BJP is responsible. They are solely responsible. It has not happened in Bengal earlier. I shall reach the spot by tomorrow 10 am,” said Anubrata Mondal, the Trinamool observer of Nadia district and party president of Birbhum district.

“The BJP does not have political ground under its feet in the state. So it is resorting to such tactics,” Mondal said.

“Satyajit Biswas took on the BJP successfully and trounced them in the assembly elections. Those who killed him acted under instructions from the BJP and especially their leader Mukul Roy. He was like my son. We will see this to the end,” said district Trinamool president Gourishankar Dutta.

Dutta also said that Biswas was involved with the Matua community.

BJP Bengal unit president Dilip Ghosh refuted the allegations of Mondal and denied that anybody with any links with his party had any links with the crime.

“It’s a most unfortunate incident. Anubrata Mondal is importing this culture of violence from Birbhum to Nadia. We want the truth to be revealed. Criminals have united under the banner of the ruling party. The tendency to label accusations against the BJP must end. Has anyone of the BJP ever been found to be linked with incidents of violence, though allegations are made all the time?” Ghosh asked.

BJP Bengal unit general secretary Sayantan Basu alleged that Biswas’s death could be an outcome of Trinamool’s factional fights. He even asked for an investigation by central agencies and questioning of Trinamool leaders.

In December last year, the BJP president Amit Shah alleged that West Bengal accounts for as many as 26% of all political murders in the country in a year.

During election rallies in Bengal, senior BJP leaders have alleged that about 70-80 lives were lost in political violence in Bengal since April 2018 when nominations for the panchayat polls started.