Suvendu Adhikari's aide murdered amid post-poll violence in West Bengal

Kolkata: A close aide of West Bengal BJP heavyweight Suvendu Adhikari was murdered in the outskirts of Kolkata on Wednesday.

Adhikari’s executive assistant, Chandranath Rath, was shot dead at Doharia in Madhyamgram in the North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal.

Tarunjyoti Tewari, a newly elected BJP MLA, said that the Trinamool Congress was responsible for the murder.

Rath was involved in organising Suvendu’s campaign in Bhabanipur, where the BJP leader had defeated Chief Minister and the TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee in the just-concluded elections.

Two assailants who came on a bike waylaid the car Rath was travelling in. They fired at the car. Rath suffered serious injuries. He was taken to a hospital where the doctors declared him dead, sources said.

Senior police officers rushed to the scene and an investigation started.

The incident took place even as sporadic incidents of post-poll violence were reported from different places across the state.

After the BJP’s landslide victory, Suvendu emerged as one of the frontrunners for the office of the chief minister.

TMC, however, issued a statement late on Wednesday night, condemning the murder, and said: "We strongly condemn the brutal murder of Chandranath Rath in Madhyamgram tonight, along with the killing of three other TMC workers in incidents of post-poll violence allegedly carried out by BJP-backed miscreants over the last three days, despite the Model Code of Conduct being in force."

"We demand the strongest possible action in this matter, including a court-monitored CBI investigation so that those responsible are identified and brought to justice without delay. Violence and political killings have no place in a democracy and the guilty must be held accountable at the earliest," it read.