ZCZC
BFF-25
INDIA-CRIME
Murder of Indian politician sets stage for election bloodshed
KOLKATA, Feb 10, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Several thousand activists paraded
through a West Bengal town Sunday with the body of a politician whose killing
opened a campaign of violence ahead of India’s general election.
Satyajit Biswas, a lawmaker from the eastern state’s ruling Trinamool
Congress (TMC), was shot dead at point blank range by unidentified gunmen as
he attended a ceremony for a Hindu goddess late Saturday.
His party blamed the arch rival Bharatiya Janata Party of Prime Minister
Narendra Modi but its leaders denied any involvement.
“We suspect a political link to the killing,” said West Bengal deputy
police chief Anuj Sharma. He added that two people had been arrested but
would not say if they were from a party.
Followers marched with the 38-year-old legislator’s body from a hospital in
Nadia district, about 120 kilometres (75 miles) from Kolkata, to his home
village.
Nadia, which borders Bangladesh, was a battleground between the TMC and BJP
during civic polls last year. There were dozens of deaths during the
campaign.
Modi must soon announce a national election expected to start in April and
which will almost certainly see new bloodshed.
Biswas “had been actively trying to prevent the BJP’s foray into the
community,” said TMC general secretary Partha Chatterjee as he blamed the
rival party for the “shocking killing”.
West Bengal BJP chief Dilip Ghosh blamed the murder on splits in the TMC.
“When there is a political killing, they accuse my party. Let there be a
Central Bureau of Investigation inquiry, everything will become clear,” he
told AFP.
West Bengal witnessed gruesome political murders around past elections with
victims hacked to pieces and some burned alive along with entire slums.
There is a close link between criminal networks and political groups in the
state, according to Sabyasachi Basu Roy Chowdhury, vice-chancellor of
Rabindra Bharati University in West Bengal. “This has complicated the
problem,” he said.
According to the Indian Express newspaper, in 2013 the Communist Party
accused the TMC of killing 142 political opponents ahead of the last national
election.
Political killings are rife across India. While National Crime Bureau data
said there were more than 100 political murders in 2016, political experts
said the figure is much higher.
Kerala, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar states in the north are the worst for
political murders, the government data shows.
BSS/AFP/ARS/1629 hrs