BJP nominee’s relative killed in WB poll violence

Kolkata, June 18

Amid the violence in the run-up to the July 8 panchayat polls in West Bengal, a BJP candidate’s brother-in-law was found stabbed to death in Cooch Behar district.

Sambhu Das, aged around 30 years, was called outside his home by unidentified youths on Saturday night, the police have said. Hours later, his body with stab wounds was found near a pond.

Union Minister of State (Home) Nisith Pramanik, who visited the residence of Das to meet the grief-stricken family, told the media on Sunday that the youth was murdered by miscreants sheltered by the Trinamool Congress, and the police and the ruling party supporters were cooking up “stories of love and extramarital affairs whenever an incident happened to deflect attention”.

West Bengal minister Udayan Guha said the party had no role in the incident and Das was not a political activist. “Das was killed due to a personal feud. The BJP gives a political twist to every crime in West Bengal and links it with the panchayat polls,” he told the media.