'Baseless Allegation to Malign Bengal': TMC Slams BJP Over Meeting President, Murshidabad Triple Murder Case

Kolkata: The TMC hit out at the BJP on Tuesday after its leaders met President Ram Nath Kovind claiming "constitutional breakdown in Bengal", describing it as an effort to malign the state and asked the saffron party to worry about people dying allegedly due to panic over NRC implementation.

Referring to the Bengal police cracking the Murshidabad triple murder case, Trinamool Congress secretary general Partha Chatterjee criticised the BJP for trying to politicize a heinous crime.

Criticising the BJP for claiming that the victim, Bandhu Prakash Pal, was a BJP-RSS worker, Chatterjee said the truth was now out in the open.

"First they claimed the slain couple were RSS workers but his family members denied that Bandhu Prakash Pal have any political affiliation.

Later some BJP leaders claimed that he was a BJP worker. But none of their statements had a figment of truth after the state administration solved the case and arrested the main culprit," Chatterjee said.

"As they have no place to hide, they have gone to the president to make baseless allegations and malign Bengal. The people of the state will give them a befitting reply," he said.

After the district administration arrested the culprit, BJP leaders were "howling" in Delhi, alleged Chatterjee.

Alleging constitutional breakdown in Bengal under the Trinamool rule, a BJP delegation on Tuesday met President Kovind and sought his intervention in the matter.

When asked to comment on the Bengal governor's statement on the triple murder case, Chatterjee said how can one expect an impartial statement from him, "who has already made a biased statement".

Police claimed to have cracked the triple murder case, with the arrest of a mason who was known to the victim family.

Utpal Behra was arrested from Sagardighi's Sahapur area of Murshidabad district on Monday night, a week after the hacked up bodies of Bandhu Prakash Pal, a 35-year-old school teacher, his pregnant wife Beauty, and 8-year-old son Angan were found lying in pools of blood at their home in Jiaganj, Superintendent of Police Mukesh Kumar said.

The incident had acquired political overtones with the BJP and Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar hitting out at the Mamata Banerjee government over the killings, and the RSS claiming the teacher as its supporter.

The victims' family, however, insisted Pal had no political affiliation.