A local Trinamool leader was shot dead,while crossing the tracks at Bandel railway station on foot to catch a local train on Saturday morning.
Trinamool has called a “24-hour bandh” across the Chinsurah Assembly seat from Sunday morning in protest at the murder of Dilip Ram, 42. The party had stopped calling bandhs since Mamata Banerjee began sniffing power after bagging 19 seats in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls.
Dilip’s wife Ritu Singh, chief of the Bandel gram panchayat, and other Trinamul leaders blamed the murder on “goons backed by BJP worker Biju Paswan and his brother Lala Paswan”. Police sources said Lala was an accused in several crimes and was in jail.
BJP leaders blamed the murder on Trinamul infighting and threatened a movement if party workers or supporters were “falsely booked”. BJP Hooghly president Subir Nag claimed Dilip had been in touch with senior BJP leaders.
Trinamul sources said Dilip, an aide to Chinsurah MLA Asit Mazumder, did not hold any party post because he was a railway employee but was the de facto chief of the party’s Bandel unit.
“Five days ago, Dilip had been held at gunpoint by BJP-backed goons, including Biju. I informed the police but they were not arrested,” Mazumder said.
A police source said: “He was shot twice in the head from behind by a group of three people. It seems a planned murder.”
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