Poll violence in Bengal claims 8 lives, 811 injured

Kolkata: Poll violence has so far claimed eight lives in West Bengal and left 811 people injured in 874 incidents, an Election Commission official said today. While one person died in Nadia district later in the month of March, the second death took place at Jalangi in Murshidabad district in early April, followed by the third death in Birbhum and fourth death at Manikchak under Malda district also in last month, OSD in CEO’s office, Amit Roy Chowdhury said here. [caption id=“attachment_1506421” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. AP[/caption] Apart from these, two persons died in the state on 26 April, the sources said, adding Prahlad Roy of CPI(M) died in a clash at ghatal in West Midnapore, while Amitabha Panja of Trinamool Congress died in another incident of clash at Hatgobindapur in Burdwan district. The seventh and eighth death was also reported from the West Midnapore district late last month in two different incidents of clashes under Keshpur and its adjacent area, Roy Chowdhury said. Over 35 persons were arrested in all these incidents of violence in different parts of the state, he said. The incidents of violence were either attack on the election personnel by a political party or clash between two major political parties in the state, the sources said. He said in a statewide drive against illegal arms and ammunition ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, huge quantity of illegal arms and weapons and cartridges were seized. The Income Tax department has so far seized about Rs 7.09 crore unaccounted Indian currency, in several cases. Smuggled gold worth Rs 2.82 crore was also seized. The Excise department has so far seized over four lakh bulk litres of illicit liquor valued at Rs 3.48 crore, he said. The EC today issued show cause notice to the Trinamool Congress MLA from Salboni Srikanto Mahato for abusing the CPI(M) leader Md Salim in filthy language, Roy Chowdhury said. Yesterday, the EC had taken suo motu cognisance against Mahato and asked the West Midnapore District Magistrate to take action and submit a report, he said. Meanwhile, a case has also been initiated in view of attack on the Congress candidate in Barrackpore Samrat Tapadar yesterday. In another case, three persons were arrested at Sandeshkhali for attack on BJP candidate Shamik Bhattacharya, he added. So far the CEO’s office has received 980 complaints of which 425 were from the CPI(M) alone. However, most of the complaints were addressed by the Commission, Roy Chowdhury claimed. PTI