Barrackpore (WB):
A BJP worker was beaten to death and six others were injured when a group of people attacked them during a door to door campaign of the party in West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas district on Saturday, police said.
Saikat Bhawal was one of those who were assaulted in Halisahar area. When he was taken to the JNM Hospital at Kalyani, doctors declared him “brought dead”, police said adding that the matter is being investigated.
Six other people who were injured in the attack that took place in ward number six of the Halisahar Municipality were admitted to the hospital.
Barrackpore BJP MP Arjun Singh alleged that goons sheltered by the Trinamool Congress killed Bhawal but the ruling party denied the charge.
Singh said that the party will launch a protest in the district against the incident on Sunday.
The BJP said that the party activists were attacked when they were engaged in the “Griha Sampark Abhiyan”.
It a public outreach programme which is part of the saffron party’s “Aar Noi Annay” (No More Injustice) campaign launched in the run up to the state Assembly election due in April-May 2021.
TMC MLA of Naihati, Partha Bhowmik, claimed that Bhawal’s death is the result of an old dispute between two groups of the locality and the BJP is unnecessarily politicising the incident.
He said that the TMC will not allow the saffron party to disturb the peaceful situation in the district.
Joint Commissioner of Barrackpore Police Commissionerate, Ajay Thakur, said that two persons were detained in this connection with the incident and are being interrogated.
