A crude bomb went off in a mango orchard in West Bengal leading to the death of one person and left three injured. Twenty-six year old Alim Sheikh got critically injured in the incident in Murshidabad district and was rushed to a hospital where he was declared dead. The three that have survived are being treated in the same hospital, said a police official. The deceased hailed from Kapasdanga village in Beldanga and had a history of criminal records, reported news agency PTI.
In another incident, three people sustained minor injuries after someone hurled crude bombs at them during a clash between the Trinamool Congress and Congress activists. As per the police, the clash broke out in Murshidabad's Raninagar. This led to a war of words between the ruling and opposition parties with the BJP and the Congress accusing the TMC of engaging criminals to make crude bombs in order to spread panic ahead of the Panchayat polls that are slated to take place on July 8.
BJP national vice-president Dilip Ghosh said that the incidents reveal TMC's gameplan which is to intimidate opposition candidates and restrict the voters that support the Opposition from stepping out of their houses and vote.
Bengal Congress president and Berhampore MP Adhir Choudhury said, "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."
TMC state spokesperson Joy Prakash Majumdar defended his party by saying that the number of deaths and injuries from such incidents has gone down drastically since the party came to power in 2011. He added that there was no evidence that could prove TMC's involvement in the Beldanga incident. He further claimed that the opposition was making false charges at the ruling party. He then accused the BJP and Congress of involving miscreants to make bombs that would create disturbances in the state and reflect its image in negative light.
The widespread violence in the state ahead of the filing of nominations for Panchayat elections had led to the death of at least eight people and several have been injured in various parts of the state.