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Updated: Jul 10, 2019 19:03 IST

Sahapur village in Bengal’s Birbhum district which is about 200 kms from the capital city of Kolkata, turned into a battleground with crude bombs raining, before a protest over ‘cut money’ could take place outside the house of a ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader.

The protests were planned to demand return of ‘cut-money’—a term implying illegal commissions taken from beneficiaries of government welfare projects—from TMC area committee president, Sheikh Enamul.

Hurling of bombs didn’t stop even after policemen from Kolkata arrived, resulting in gun wielding cops giving criminals a chase.

Agitations across the state have left the state of West Bengal in turmoil since chief minister Mamata Banerjee last month asked the TMC leaders, who took ‘cut money’ to return it.

On June 25, the only instance of a TMC leader returning ‘cut money’ was reported from Birbhum district’s Koma area, when Trilochan Mukherjee returned Rs 2.46 lakhs to the villagers.

BJP’s Birbhum district president Shyampada Mandal blamed Wednesday’s violence on TMC leaders’ reluctance to return the illegal commission.

“TMC leaders had embezzled a lot of ‘cut money’, and now when the people are demanding that they return the amount, they (the leaders) are attacking the people,” he said.

TMC’s vice president in Birbhum district, Abhijit Singh, however, claimed that BJP leaders were behind the trouble. “BJP leaders are paying miscreants and asking locals to attack the houses and leaders of our party. At Sahapur, BJP supporters and their hired goons hurled bombs and are now blaming us,” Singh said.

Eight people were detained and a large number of crude bombs and explosives were seized in raids after the incident.

Three drums full of crude bombs were recovered from Simulia village and another four drums were found near a poultry farm in Nanoor, both in Birbhum district.

The previous night, police had recovered 223 packets of ammonium nitrate (used for making explosives) and eight bags of gelatine sticks from Rampurhat area of the district.