The incident took place in the Domkal area of Murshidabad Lok Sabha constituency.
On early Thursday morning, the local people spotted the burning shops and informed the owners, and a fire tender then reached the spot.
Although the fire was brought under control soon, the shops were gutted, resulting in the loss of lakhs of rupees.
Two of the shop owners were earlier with the Trinamool Congress and had joined the Congress-CPI(M) alliance just before the Lok Sabha polls. One of them, Mozammel Mondal said that since he joined the Congress he had been facing threats from the ruling party activists. “Ultimately, our shops were gutted by the goons having the backing of the ruling party,” claimed Mondal.
A similar experience was shared with the media persons by another affected shop owner Ibrahim Ali. “Since the time I decided to support the alliance I had been facing life threats. Some of the ruling party goons had also been threatening to burn down my shop. I have complained to the police about the entire incident,” he said.
The district Trinamool Congress leadership has, however, rubbished the allegations of the involvement of their party activists in the incident.
The police have begun the probe, said officials.
IANS
