KOLKATA: Three persons, including a Class VII student and his brother, were hit by bullets during a clash between Trinamool and BJP supporters on Saturday evening in Bankura’s Bishnupur Lok Sabha constituency in Bengal.
The BJP alleged that police opened fire targeting the saffron party supporters. Police, however, denied the charge.
According to police, the trouble started at Patrasayar area when, during a rally led by transport minister and Trinamool’s observer for Bankura district Subhendu Adhikary, BJP supporters started chanting the ‘Jai Shri Ram’ slogan.
“A bullet his Soumen Barui, who was returning from a tuition class, in the abdomen. His elder brother Tapas too was hit by a bullet before he could rescue Soumen. Tula Prasad Khan was the third person to be hit,” said a police officer.
The injured were admitted to a local hospital where their condition was stated to be critical. Police arrested BJP’s divisional chief Tamal Kanti. The BJP claimed Tapas and Tula Prasad were its workers.
Trinamool alleged that the BJP supporters had prevented its workers from attending the rally. “Our supporters were returning to buses and matador vans after the rally when the BJP supporters attacked them. The allegation of firing by police is baseless,’’ said party leader Subrata Mukherjee.
BJP state chief Dilip Ghosh said the party supporters were attacked by Trinamool men when they chanted ‘Jai Shri Ram’.
Dismissing the allegation, Bankura SP Koteshwar Rao said, “The police did not open fire. They chased the warring supporters by wielding batons and lobbed teargas shells to take control of the situation.”
Rao, however, could not explain who opened fire.
“We are conducting a probe to ascertain who had opened fire,” he said.