Congress candidate held: A Congress panchayat poll candidate was among the five persons who were arrested from a house in West Bengal's Birbhum district where crude bombs were allegedly being made, police said on Sunday (June 24).
A house in Bahirgora village in the Margram police station area was raided around midnight following a tip-off, they said.
The police claimed that the crude bombs were being made on the rooftop of the house. The Congress leader who was arrested was identified as Chamatkar Seikh, a candidate in Hasan-II panchayat.
Among others who were held included the owner of the house Sheikh Tom, and Ghiyasuddin Sheikh, Duke Sheikh and Anarul Sheikh, police said.
The police said that they have seized some crude bombs along with the materials that were being used to make them. The police have registered a case and an investigation into the matter is underway.
West Bengal will go to panchayat polls on July 8.
1 killed, 3 injured in crude bomb blast in Murshibabad
One person was killed while three others were injured in a crude bomb blast incident that took place in a mango orchard in West Bengal’s Murshibabad district on Saturday, the police said. The deceased was identified as Alim Sheikh (26). He was critically injured in the blast and was rushed to the hospital where he was declared brought dead. Sheikh, according to the police, was a history sheeter.
The three others who sustained injuries were also being treated at the same hospital, the police said.
In another related incident, three history-sheeter were injured after crude bombs were hurled during a clash between Trinamool and Congress activists at Raninagar in Murshidabad, the police said.
War of words among political parties
The latest incidents triggered a war of words between the ruling TMC and the opposition Congress and BJP. The opposition alleged that the TMC is engaging the criminals to make crude bombs to spread panic in the run-up to the July 8 panchayat polls.
“Miscreants sheltered by the TMC are making bombs to trigger widespread unrest ahead of the rural polls. We don't have faith in police as they are not taking action against local-level Trinamool leaders,” WBPCC president and Berhampore MP Adhir Choudhury said.
TMC state spokesperson Joy Prakash Majumdar said the number of deaths and injuries from such incidents has gone down drastically since the party came to power in 2011. Majumdar said there was no evidence to prove TMC's involvement in the Beldanga incident and claimed that the opposition was levelling false charges against the government.
Widespread violence over the filing of nominations for the three-tier panchayat polls has left at least eight people dead and several injured in various parts of the state in the past two weeks.
(With PTI inputs)
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