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Blast at TMC leader’s house in Bengal’s East Medinipur kills 2
The blast took place hours before the West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s nephew and TMC’s general secretary Abhishek Banerjee’s visit to the area where he was scheduled to address a public rally some 7 km from the blast site
At least two persons were killed and several others injured after a blast ripped apart a house belonging to a Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader in the East Medinipur district of West Bengal late on Friday night, police said.
The police recovered two dead bodies with severe burn injuries from separate locations within a distance of 1.5 km from the house. The victims have been identified as Rajkumar Manna, booth-level president of the TMC at Bhupatinagar and a TMC worker Biswajit Gayen.
“The blast took place around 11 pm on Friday. On Saturday morning two dead bodies were found at a distance. The cause of the blast is yet to be ascertained and an investigation into the matter has been launched,” said an officer of Bhupatinagar police station.
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Senior police officers of the districts refused to take calls and did not respond to messages either.
The blast took place hours before the West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s nephew and TMC’s general secretary Abhishek Banerjee’s visit to the area where he was scheduled to address a public rally some 7 km from the blast site.
The incident has triggered a political slugfest between the TMC and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with the latter demanding a probe by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) alleging that the TMC workers were making bombs in the state.
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“It is impossible to trigger such a blast without storing huge amounts of explosives. Manna and other TMC workers were making bombs. Police are claiming they recovered two dead bodies but we apprehend there may be a few more. We demand an NIA probe,” Biswajit Maity, BJP legislator from Bhagabanpur, East Medinipur told reporters.
The TMC, however, has brushed aside the allegations saying that there is no involvement of the party in the incident.
“There has been a blast and we have heard that a few persons have been injured. But this has nothing to do with the party. The police are investigating it,” TMC coordinator Tanmay Ghosh told media persons.
