A day after the former Communist Party of India (Marxist) MLA, Dilip Sarkar, was shot dead in Kulpi in Bardhaman district, the police said on Monday that the incident did not appear to be a case of “political murder.”
“According to the reports of preliminary investigation received so far it is not a case of political murder,” Additional Director General of Police Banibrata Basu told journalists at the State Secretariat.
Senior police officers probing the case said that there was a woman among those who fired at Mr. Sarkar from a motorcycle.
“All possible angles, including involvement of women and drugs, are being looked into,” Mr. Basu said.
Meanwhile, shops and markets remained closed in Bardhaman’s Asansol subdivision after the CPI(M) called a 12-hour-strike to protest the killing.
Mr. Sarkar represented Baraboni in the Assembly and was the district secretary of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), the CPI(M)’s labour arm.
CPI(M) State secretary Biman Bose alleged that the Trinamool was behind the murder. However, the charge was denied by the party general secretary Mukul Roy. In another incident Madan Soren, a CPI(M) activist, was killed in a clash with alleged Trinamool supporters in Galsi, Bardhaman on Monday.
