Three killed in blast near Suvendu Adhikari's ancestral home

Kolkata, Dec 3 (IANS) Three persons were killed in an explosion near the ancestral residence of Leader of Opposition in West Bengal Assembly Suvendu Adhikari in East Midnapore district.

The explosion took place late Friday night, few hours before the scheduled rally of Trinamool Congress's national general secretary and party MP Abhishek Banerjee.

The incident occurred at Trinamool Congress booth president Ramkumar Manna's house in which he also died.

Other two killed in the explosion were identified as Debkumar Manna, a cousin of Rajkumar and Biswajit Gayen.

According to local police sources, two others severely injured in the blast were rushed to a local hospital in adjacent West Midnapore district.

Questions were being raised on lapses in the security arrangements, especially when the entire area had been cordoned off by police since Friday because of Abhishek Banerjee's rally. Huge police contingent has not only cordoned off the area where the Trinamool Congress' national secretary is supposed to hold the rally, but also the ancestral residence of the leader of the opposition, to prevent any untoward incident at the time of the rally.

Police officers are totally tight-lipped over the probable cause of the blast. However, political mudslinging has started over the tragic incident.

According to the local BJP legislator from Bhagabanpur assembly constituency, Rabindranath Maiti, the blast took place because of the stocked explosives at the residence of Manna which were meant for manufacturing of crude bombs.

"There is an attempt on part of the local administration to hush up the entire incident," Maiti alleged.

However, Trinamool Congress's state general secretary and the party spokesman Kunal Ghosh denied the allegations and claimed that the local BJP activists are responsible for this explosion which they carried out to create tension in the area before Abhishek Banerjee's rally.

"BJP has been trying to create tension in the area for the last few days. Their leaders, being escorted by the Central armed forces personnel, were trying to bring explosives in the area," Ghosh alleged.