Former CPI(M) MLA shot dead in West Bengal

KOLKATA, June 9, 2013

Dilip Sarkar, a former MLA of the CPI(M), who was overseeing the campaign for the rural polls in West Bengal, was shot dead at Kulpi in the Asansol subdivision of Bardhaman district on Sunday.

Mr. Sarkar was gunned down by persons riding a motorcycle at 6.45 a.m. while out on his morning walk. He was taken to a nearby hospital where he was declared dead, a senior official of the Asansol Durgapur Police Commissionerate said.

“The politics of murder” was being perpetrated by the Trinamool Congress, State Secretary of the CPI(M) Biman Bose alleged, strongly condemning the killing.

“So far 95 activists of the CPI(M) have been killed since the Trinamool Congress government came to power in the State,” he said.

Accusing the Trinamool Congress of indulging in the “politics of vengeance,” he said the murder of Mr. Sarkar, a secretariat member of the Bardhaman district committee and the district secretary of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions — the labour arm of the party — has made clear the intentions of the ruling party.

“The CPI(M) will organise rallies across the State to protest against the murder and has also called a 12-hour bandh in the Asansol subdivision on Monday,” he said, adding that so far 13 CPI(M) workers have been killed in Bardhaman district alone, since the Trinamool Congress government came to power.