Trinamool leader critical after being shot at in Bengal’s Murshidabad

india

Updated: Aug 11, 2019 16:49 IST

A Trinamool Congress leader of Balia gram panchayat in West Bengal’s Murshidabad district was shot at on Saturday evening when he was returning home on a two-wheeler.

Locals said that four people confronted Mainul Sheikh (50) when he was on the way back home and a quarrel started.

One of the men fired two rounds and one of the bullets hit Sheikh’s abdomen, said a villager.

Officer-in-charge of Khargram police station Kartik Maji said, “We have got a complaint against four persons and so far arrested an accused.”

Sheikh is battling for his life in a Kolkata hospital.

The incident took place just five days after a TMC member of Kandi panchayat samiti in the same district was killed.

Sheikh was first taken to a local hospital that referred him to Murshidabad Medical College and Hospital. But he was shifted to SSKM Hospital in Kolkata when his condition deteriorated on Saturday night.

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“Sheikh defected to the TMC from the CPM before the panchayat election last year. He was the booth president of our party at Baliahat village during Lok Sabha polls,” said Gokul Ghosh, chief of TMC-run Balia gram panchayat.

Ruling party president of Kandi sub-division Goutam Roy said TMC men are repeatedly facing attacks from “Congress-backed goons” in Murshidabad.

The Congress refuted the allegations and said Trinamool should stop blaming Congress for every incident in Murshidabad. “The injured person is associated with several illegal trades. He might have been attacked by business rivals. No Congress activist is associated with the crime,” said Jayanta Das, Congress spokesperson.

TMC leaders had also pointed fingers at Congress after the murder of party member Zahangir Sheikh on August 5.

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