Bengal Trinamool leader shot at on Sunday, dies

A Trinamool Congress leader from West Bengal's Birbhum district, who was hospitalised with bullet injuries, died on Monday, the hospital sources said.

Dipak Ghosh, the party's block president of Birbhum district's Khayrasole, was allegedly shot at by unidentified persons on Sunday while riding a motorcycle with a fellow party worker. He was rushed to a private hospital in the district's Durgapur.

"Dipak Ghosh was admitted to the hospital with two bullet injuries on Sunday. He died today. The body will be sent for an autopsy," an official from the Mission Hospital, Durgapur said.

Police said they have arrested seven persons.

The district Trinamool Congress president Anubrata Mondal condemned the incident and accused the BJP of orchestrating the attack.

"I knew him very well. He was an active party leader. The goons of BJP killed him. They fired five bullets at him yesterday. He had been attacked by the BJP workers before but managed to survive," Mondal said.

The BJP has, however, refuted the allegation and claimed that Ghosh's death was a result of Trinamool Congress' faction fight over the spoils of coal mining in the area.

"Our party is not involved in this. There has been incidents f violence and deaths in Khayrasole before but no one accused BJP for that. Local Trinamool leaders there are fighting each other over the possession of coal mines. Ghosh was killed in his party's faction fight," said state BJP President Dilip Ghosh.

--IANS

mgr-sgh/prs