A Trinamul Congress activist was murdered in Nadia late on Friday night allegedly by rival faction of his own party.
Prahalad Roy, 30, was the head of the Trinamul Yuva in Silinda gram panchayat in Nadia’s Chakdah and his name was being considered as a candidate for the coming panchayat election.
The murder took place only hours after the state government announced the dates of the polls on April 26 and 30. A group of six men came to Roy’s house at around 11 pm and shot at him from point blank range and escaped on motorcycles. He was declared brought dead when rushed to the Chakdah hospital. His wife Mitali lodged an FIR on Saturday morning and the police arrested two of the six accused.
Amit Chakraborty and Hari Naraian Mitra allegedly belong to Trinamul Congress. “We are searching for the other four accused,” Nadia SP S.R. Mishra said, refusing to divulge their names for the sake of investigation.
Sources said that Amit and Hari had strongly opposed his nomination when in a meeting Roy was shortlisted as a possible candidate for Silinda gram panchayat election.
All-India Trinamul Congress general-secretary Mukul Roy who visited the slain party leader’s home, however, blamed the CPI(M) for his killing. “Prahalad Roy’s murder clearly shows that the CPI(M) is preparing to unleash violence in the run up to the rural polls,” he added.
Rejecting his charge, local CPI(M) leader Sumit Dey said that the arrest of two Trinamul Congress workers proved that Roy’s murder was a fallout of intra-party strife.