Bengal Rural Polls: Body Of BJP Candidate's Brother-In-Law Found

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.

Amid the violence in the run-up to the July 8 panchayat polls in West Bengal, the body of a BJP candidate's brother-in-law was found in the 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.

Union Minister of State (Home) Nisith Pramanik, who visited the residence of Das to meet the grief-stricken family, told reporters on Sunday that the youth was murdered by goons sheltered by the Trinamool Congress and police and the ruling party supporters were cooking up "stories of love and extramarital affairs whenever an incident happened to deflect attention." 

Claiming that everyone's security was at stake in Trinamool's regime, Mr Pramanik said, "There had been attacks even on my life by TMC goons in the past as policemen, who have become stooges of the ruling party, watched silently." Demanding an impartial probe into the death of Das, Mr Pramanik said, "Whenever poll dates are announced in West Bengal, opposition party activists and their family members are killed by members and supporters of the ruling party." BJP leader Ajoy Roy had earlier alleged that Das, who had seconded the name of Bisakha Das as a BJP gram panchayat candidate from Dasgram area in Dinhata, was murdered by Trinamool supporters.