KOLKATA, May 7: West Bengal sank into a miasma of fear and despair in the face of political violence yet again on Thursday, following uncharacteristically peaceful elections in the state, as early leads in Chandranath Rath’s murder investigation showed the personal assistant to BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari was killed in a planned hit on Wednesday night.
Investigators suspect the involvement of professional shooters, with police recovering vehicles carrying fake number plates, even as the murder deepened the state’s post-poll fault lines and led to a fresh war of words between the winner BJP and the loser TMC.
Rath’s grieving mother alleged that the killing was linked to Mamata Banerjee’s defeat against Adhikari in Bhabanipur.
“I would not have suffered so much had he died in an accident. He was targeted because he worked for Adhikari,” she told reporters.
Speaking before Rath’s body was taken to his hometown Chandipur in Purba Medinipur district, Adhikari said the Indian Air Force veteran was killed because of association with him and his victory in Bhabanipur, where he defeated TMC chief Mamata Banerjee.
“The IAF ex-serviceman might not have been killed had he not been my PA and had I not won from Bhabanipur. His only fault was that he was Suvendu Adhikari’s personal assistant. Five bullets were fired at him to ensure his death,” Adhikari told the media at Barasat State General Hospital, where the post-mortem examination of Rath’s body was conducted.
As political tempers soared outside, Rath’s family struggled to come to grips with the tragedy. Party leaders said the family would take a final call on the last rites after consulting relatives.
Police said multiple teams were examining CCTV footage collected from Kolkata Police and Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate areas to trace the men who intercepted Rath’s SUV near Madhyamgram on Wednesday night and opened fire from close range before escaping on motorcycles.
The murder has transformed the state’s fragile post-election atmosphere into a political confrontation marked by fear, revenge narratives and accusations of retaliatory violence. (PTI)
