Mukul Roy named in FIR over TMC MLA’s killing
NADIA/MIDNAPORE: The West Bengal Police on Sunday arrested two people for their alleged involvement in the killing of a Trinamool Congress MLA and named Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Mukul Roy as a “conspirator” in the first FIR filed over the incident that took place a day earlier.
Satyajit Biswas, who represented Bengal’s Krishnaganj constituency, was shot dead on Saturday evening while he was leaving an event in Nadia district.
The 41-year-old legislator’s personal security officer and the station house officer of the area were suspended after the incident, according to the police.
he investigation into the killing has been handed over to the Crime Investigation Division (CID).
Roy, who was with the Trinamool Congress before joining the BJP, said the allegations against him related to Biswas’ killing were fabricated, adding that the MLA was a victim of infighting within the ruling party.
“It’s ridiculous that they have named me in the FIR. It only reflects the amount of panic the TMC is suffering,” the BJP’s
Lok Sabha management committee incharge for West Bengal said.
Police said five people have been named in the FIR over the killing.
Apart from Roy and those arrested – Kartik Mondal and Sujit Mondal – two people named Abhijit Pundari and Kalipada Malda have also been accused in the case. “A countrymade revolver used to shoot the MLA has been recovered. As per our primary findings, it seems that the victim was shot from behind and the act was the result of a well-planned plot,” a district police officer said on the condition of anonymity.
The FIR was lodged on a complaint filed by Milan Saha, an aide of the MLA, who alleged that Pundari fired the weapon as three others prevented Biswas from leaving the venue. Shortly after the arrests on Sunday, Trinamool Congress leaders accused the BJP of trying to incite violence for political gains in the state.
“The BJP is stooping too low. Those who have killed him will not be spared,” said TMC general secretary and state education minister Partha Chatterjee after visiting the MLA’s family at Krishnaganj, about 120km from Kolkata.
BJP Bengal president Dilip Ghosh, who demanded an investigation by CID, said the murder of Biswas was similar to the killing of the Trinamool Congress’s Hanskhali block committee president Dulal Biswas in April 2017. He said that those linked to the Mamata Banerjee-led party were arrested in the case.
“All sorts of mafia have taken shelter in TMC and the party’s organisation is collapsing due to infighting,” Ghosh said.
Surya Kanta Mishra, the state secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), said the MLA’s murder proved that lawlessness prevailed in Bengal.
After Biswas’ cremation on Sunday afternoon, his wife Rupali said she was confident it was a “political murder”.
The incident comes amid political tension in the state, with Trinamool Congress president and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee recently holding a sit-in in Kolkata after blocking the Central Bureau of Investigation’s attempt to arrest the city’s police commissioner, Rajeev Kumar, in the Saradha chit fund case.
The Supreme Court later said the CBI should not take any “coercive action” against Kumar, but allowed his questioning by the agency in Shillong. Both Banerjee and leaders of the BJP claimed victory over the issue after the apex court’s ruling.