BJP MP Claims Bengal Police Shot Dead Party Worker In Violence-Hit City

Amid the grave law and order situation at Kaliachak in the North Dinajpur district of West Bengal in the wake of the alleged rape and murder of a 17-year-old girl, the BJP on Thursday alleged that one of its workers in the area was shot dead by the state police.

Accusing the Bengal police of murder, BJP MP Debashree Chowdhury said her party and its workers cannot be silenced by "shootings and arrests".

"The ruling party (Trinamool Congress) is mistaken if they think they could silence us by shooting at our cadres or making random arrests. The whole country is with us," Chowdhury said.

She alleged that the state police personnel shot dead the BJP worker, identified as Mritunjay Burman, on Wednesday late night when they came to arrest the party's panchayat samiti member in Kaliaganj, Bishnu Barman.

"The police shot dead Mritunjay Burman in Radhikapur late on Wednesday night. They came to arrest Kaliaganj Panchayat Samiti member Bishnu Barman and failing to find him, they killed his nephew Mrityunjoy Burman, who is also an active member of the BJP," the BJP MP from North Bengal said, adding, "Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is planning to wipe out BJP from West Bengal."

Asserting that the BJP had no hand in the Kaliaganj police station attack, she added, "We also have video footage of miscreants attacking the police station. We will also investigate the incident at our end."

Also tweeting on the alleged killing, the BJP's IT cell in-change Amit Malviya claimed that a "trigger-happy" West Bengal police shot dead Mrityunjay Burman.

"A trigger-happy West Bengal police shot dead 33-year old Rajbonshi youth named Mrityunjay Burman (son of Rabindranath Burman) in Chadga village under Radhikapur Gram Panchayat in Kaliaganj," Malviya tweeted.

"Yesterday afternoon, after Mamata Banerjee declared war on the people of Uttar Dinajpur, who have been demanding CBI inquiry in the rape and murder of a minor girl, West Bengal police, as if on cue, barged into the house of BJP Panchayat Samiti Member Vishnu Burman at 2.30am. Unable to find him, out of frustration, and desperately wanting to please their political master, killed Mrityunjay in cold blood," Malviya added.

He further claimed that there was a rule of undemocratic bloodbath in Bengal under Mamata Banerjee. "The undemocratic bloodbath that started under Mamata Banerjee's watch on 2nd May 2021, after Assembly results were declared, continues till date...," the BJP leader tweeted.

Earlier, on the Kaliaganj incident and the attack on the police station that followed, the Bengal chief minister hit out at the BJP, accusing it of carrying out "violence" and "hooliganism".

Ms Mamata added that she had directed the police to act against those behind the violence at Kaliachak.

"Such hooliganism -- a police force being attacked and public property damaged -- is unacceptable. I have asked the police to investigate the matter and bring the culprits to book. The incident involving the minor girl will be investigated and so will the violence that followed," she said.

"Even when the (minor girl's) body was taken, stones were pelted. I will direct the police to arrest the accused (behind the violence) and attach their properties or else such hooliganism won't stop," she added.

"BJP brought people from Bihar, who beat up the women police personnel brutally. I am not saying that the Kaliaganj incident was planned. It's an unfortunate incident and we are with the family. But what happened later was planned," she said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)