BJP leader Manish Shukla was shot dead on Sunday evening, September 4, about 20 km from north Kolkata. The crime took place as he was in conversation with some party workers and locals near a local police station.
Blaming the ruling Trinamool Congress for the murder, the BJP has called for a 12-hour bandh (shutdown) in the Barrackpore area today.
Denying the charge, however, the Trinamool Congress blamed the incident on an internal feud within the BJP.
Condemning the incident, Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar summoned the DGP (Director General of police) and home secretary to the Raj Bhavan at 10 AM.
ACS Home @MamataOfficial and DGP @WBPolice have been summoned at 10 am tomorrow in the wake of worsening law and order situation leading to dastardly killing of Manish Shukla, Councillor, Titagarh Municipality in political party office.
— Governor West Bengal Jagdeep Dhankhar (@jdhankhar1) October 4, 2020
Eyewitnesses have claimed that men on motorcycles drove up to Shukla and fired bullets at him. He was reportedly shot in the chest, head and back.
He was initially rushed to a private hospital in Barrackpore and then Kolkata. However, he succumbed to his injuries.
A police team rushed to tackle the tensions that erupted after the BJP supporters heckled Barrackpore police commissioner Manoj Verma and additional commissioner Ajay Thakur.
Blaming West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for his death, BJP General Secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya described Manish Shukla as ‘a close associate of BJP’s Barrackpore MP Arjun Singh’.
‘We have no faith on the police. As the killing happened in front of the police station, there has to be some link. There should be a CBI probe into it. Arjun Singh had said earlier his life and those of his associates were in danger,’ NDTV quoted him as saying.
‘I regret Mamta Banerjee that you are resorting to such tactics. The people will never forgive you,’ he added.
‘Shri Manish Shukla, BJP councillor from Titagarh, shot dead in front of a police station… Lawlessness in Bengal under Mamata Banerjee is at its peak. Political murders seem to have state sanction and have increasingly become a norm. This violence won’t stop till Pishi is out,’ BJP’s Amit Malviya tweeted.
Shri Manish Shukla, BJP councillor from Titagarh, shot dead in front of a police station…Lawlessness in Bengal under Mamata Banerjee is at its peak. Political murders seem to have state sanction and have increasingly become a norm.This violence won’t stop till Pishi is out. pic.twitter.com/M7O43jVKye
— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) October 5, 2020
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