Amid the violence in the run-up to the July 8 panchayat polls in West Bengal, the body of a Bharatiya Janata Party candidate's brother-in-law was found in Cooch Behar district.
Sambhu Das, aged around 30 years, was called outside his home by unidentified youths on Saturday night, police said. Hours later his body with stab wounds was found near a pond.
BJP leader Ajoy Roy alleged that Das, who had supported the name of Bisakha Das as a BJP gram panchayat candidate from the Dasgram area in Dinhata, was murdered by Trinamool supporters.
Denying Roy’s claim, West Bengal minister and Trinamool’s Dinhata MLA Udayan Guha said the party had no role in the incident and Das was not a political activist.
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"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 reporters.
In Malda district, Trinamool candidate Mustafa Sheikh was fatally attacked by miscreants in the Sujapur area, police said. He was taken to a hospital where he was declared dead, police added.
According to state minister Sabina Yeasmin, former TMC activists who had joined the Congress after being denied tickets, were behind the attack on Sheikh.
Widespread violence over the filing of nominations for the three-tier panchayat polls has left at least seven people dead and several injured in various parts of the state.
