Joynagar remains tense a day after local TMC leader shot dead

TMC accused CPI-M of the murder while the latter attributed it to infighting within the ruling party. On Tuesday, CPI-M leaders scuffled with police when they were prevented from visiting the area with villagers while later an ISF MLA was also stopped by cops. An alleged assailant arrested in connection with the murder was produced before court and remanded to 10 days of police custody.

Kolkata: A day after a local Trinamool Congress leader was shot dead, CPI-M leaders scuffled with police on Tuesday when they were stopped from visiting the village where several houses were ransacked following the murder at Joynagar in West Bengal's South 24 Parganas district. Later, ISF MLA Naushad Siddiqui was also stopped from going to the village by the police.

TMC held CPI-M responsible for the murder of Saifuddin Lashkar, TMC president of Bamungachi in Joynagar. Refuting the allegation, CPI-M said that they had no involvement in the incident and instead attributed it to infighting within the ruling party.

Senior CPI-M leaders namely Sujan Chakraborty and Samik Lahiri were accompanying the villagers to Dogachia village this morning when they were stopped by the police who said that outsiders were not being allowed to enter the area. The CPI-M leaders on the other hand, accused the police of double standards. When the leaders tried to move past the policemen, the latter forcefully stopped them leading to a scuffle between them.

The villagers alleged that they had fled from Dogachia village after violence broke out yesterday but the police were now preventing them from returning home. Houses of several CPI-M supporters were vandalised and set ablaze after the TMC leader's murder yesterday.

Violence had erupted at Joynagar after Saifuddin was shot dead by bike-borne miscreants in the wee hours on Monday while he was going to offer prayers at a local mosque. While two alleged assailants were caught from the spot, others managed to escape.

Among the two, one assailant was lynched by irate mob yesterday and the other was arrested. He was produced before the Baruipur court which has remanded him to 10-day police custody. He later claimed that he had not shot the deceased TMC leader and the attack was planned by someone else but did not elaborate further.