Unidentified miscreants attacked BJP booth level president Sandip Ghosh and another party worker Jaidip Banerjee in Paschim Burdwan district of West Bengal on Monday, December 10. While Ghosh was shot dead, Banerjee was seriously injured and admitted to Mission Hospital in Durgapur.
What had happened?
Reportedly, the miscreants attacked Ghosh and Banerjee on Sunday night at Malandighi Saraswatigunj area of the district when both of them were returning home after they attended a meeting.
Although BJP alleged that TMC goons had killed Ghosh, a Trinamool Congress district leader denied the allegations and said that BJP’s inter-party rivalry resulted in Ghosh’s murder.
TMC leader Uttam Mukherjee, calling the allegations “baseless”, said that the murder happened due to clashes in the BJP regarding the distribution of funds among them. He further said that the truth will come out once the matter is investigated, reported India Today.
“The TMC has lost its ground in the area and in order to break the morale of BJP workers, it killed one of our BJP workers,” BJP block leader Raman Sharma said. Sharma added that the meeting that both the leaders attended was held in Saraswatiganj village of Malandighi Anchal of Kanksa block for the Shakti Kendra.
When the two of them left on a bike around 10 pm, TMC workers attacked them and Ghosh was hit on the head by a bullet, reported India Today. He fell in the sewer. Heavy police cover, led by Deputy Commissioner of Police Abhishek Modi, has been deployed at the crime scene. Although the post-mortem was supposed to have been carried out in a Durgapur subdivisional hospital, it has now been shifted to the Asansol district hospital due to tension in the area.
What the deceased’s father has to say
Sandip Ghosh had told his father Bijay Ghosh that he was all set to attend a picnic.
“My son’s life has been sacrificed for political gains. I never knew he was going for a political programme. He is a college student. He left home saying he was going for a party. I had told my son to first finish his studies and then do what he wanted. I never asked him to join politics. The TMC has killed him. Who else will kill him?” he said
Ghosh’s father was angry with the BJP leadership for taking his son to the party meeting and sent that he wants his son’s body. “I want a strict punishment for the accused. I asked them [BJP] why they took him for a party meeting inside the jungle,” he said.
Other incidents of political violence in West Bengal
This is not the first instance of political violence in West Bengal. Among several other incidents that took place, there was an explosion in August this year in a TMC party office in West Midnapore in West Bengal, which killed a Trinamool Congress worker and injured six others. The blast took place before a meeting which was supposed to take place in that location.
The Indian Express reported that in June this year, the ruling Trinamool Congress supporters were accused by CPM Gram Panchayat member Atabul Islam of murdering his relative, Ramzan Miya, 48, and also attacking his supporters in Cooch Behar.
West Bengal’s Purulia district saw a harrowing incident in which 32-year-old Dulal Kumar, a BJP worker, was found hanging from a power transmission tower in June this year. News18 reported that according to the BJP, the man was killed by TMC supporters because he participated in a thana gherao protest that the party had organized.
In another similar incident, an 18-year-old boy was hanged to death for being a BJP worker, with a chilling note written on the back of his shirt in May this year.
With a series of violent events have taken place in West Bengal in a single year alone, it can be said that while those in power are there to protect us, they have enveloped us in fear instead. While politics is supposed to be used to run the country well, it is being used as a tool to take personal revenge. The Logical Indian urges the authorities to investigate the matter and nab those who are found to be guilty.
Also Read: West Bengal: Blast At TMC Office, One Dead & Six Injured
