Congress candidate arrested in Trinamool leader’s murder case

Kolkata: Two persons, including a Congress candidate for the West Bengal panchayat polls were arrested by police on Friday in connection with the murder of Dhananjay Choubey, the Trinamool Congress’s Adra town president in Purulia district.

Choubey was shot from point blank range while he was at the party office on Thursday evening.

The two arrested persons have been identified as Arshad Hossain and N.D. Jamal. Hossain is contesting as a Congress candidate in the state panchayat elections scheduled on July 8.

State Congress leader and Calcutta High Court counsel Kaustav Bagchi claimed that the arrest had been a conspiracy hatched by the district police in connection with the ruling Trinamool Congress.

“Congress is the principal opponent of Trinamool Congress in Purulia. At the same time, severe infighting in the state’s ruling party leaders in the district is quite common. We are sure that Thursday’s murder was a result of that conspiracy. Now to cover up, the Congress candidate and a party worker has been framed,” Bagchi said.

The district leadership of Trinamool Congress has, however, denied such charges and claimed that the Congress leaders and workers had been trying to disturb the peaceful polling process in Purulia district since the beginning, the fallout of which was the murder of Choubey.

Meanwhile, the district Trinamool Congress workers have been agitating, blocking the roads in different parts of Purulia district since Friday morning as a mark of protest against Choubey’s murder. They claimed that the road blockade will continue for an indefinite period unless all those involved in the murder are nabbed and appropriate action taken.

At around 8.30 p.m. on Thursday, when Choubey was sitting at the party office along with his associates, three unknown miscreants arrived at the spot on a motorcycle and shot at Choubey from a very close range. His bodyguard Sekhar Das was also injured in the firing. A profusely bleeding Choubey was admitted to a local hospital under critical condition and he died soon after being admitted. His bodyguard is under treatment at the same hospital.

On Thursday afternoon only the Governor, C.V. Ananda Bose had indirectly held the West Bengal State Election Commission responsible for the bloodshed over the rural civic body polls.(IANS)