CPI(M) Members Clash With Police In Bengal's Joynagar, Day After TMC Leader's Murder

The scuffle broke out after police stopped the CPI(M) leaders from going to Dogachia village where several houses of the villagers were ransacked and some were set on fire following the murder.

Kolkata: A day after a local TMC leader was shot dead, CPI(M) leaders, including former MPs Sujan Chakraborty and Samik Lahiri, scuffled with the police on Tuesday at Joynagar in South 24 Parganas district.

The scuffle broke out after police stopped the communist leaders from going to Dogachia village where several houses of the villagers were ransacked and some were set on fire following the murder, reported news agency PTI.

The leaders were accompanying villagers who were stated to be the Left party's supporters. 

Enraged at being stopped from going to the village, Chakraborty claimed that the police were playing a partisan role.

"We will not allow outsiders for administrative reasons," a police officer present at the spot said, following which the scuffle broke out as the CPI(M) leaders tried to move forward.

On Monday, tensions erupted in West Bengal's South 24 Parganas after a local TMC leader and panchayat member Saifuddin Lashkar was shot dead by some unknown assailants from a close range while he was going to a local mosque for morning prayers, according to an IANS report. 

The local TMC leadership alleged that the CPI(M) was behind the killing of Laskar, the ruling party's area president of Bamungachi in Joynagar.

The affected villagers claimed that their houses were attacked as they were CPI(M) supporters, reported PTI. The villagers also claimed that they were stopped from going back to the village, from where they had fled following Monday's ransacking.

Not only CPI(M) leaders, ISF MLA Naushad Siddiqui of the neighbouring Bhangore constituency was also stopped by the police from visiting Dogachia village.

Responding to the allegations, Chakraborty claimed that the murder of Laskar was the result of internal strife within the TMC and the CPI(M) has nothing to do with it.

Following the shooting, one alleged assailant was caught from the area and was lynched, while another was arrested by the police.

The arrested accused was produced before the Baruipur court on Tuesday and remanded to 10 days in police custody.