CPI(M) worker shot dead in Purulia

Purulia. Apr 20 (UNI) Suspected Maoists shot dead CPI(M) local Committee secretary Khetrapal Kumar Majhi in Rangametia village late last night, police said today.

Police said the CPI(M) leader, resident of Fosko village of Arsha in this district, was a local primary school teacher.

Police sources said they were yet to confirm whether or not this was a Maoist attack. However, member of Purulia district CPI(M) secretariate Dinabandhu Bandopadhyay told mediapersons he was sure that the assailants were Maoists.

Purulia SP Ashok Kumar Prasad said, ''We are aware of the activities of the Maoists, but until our suspicions are totally substantiated, we will continue our search.'' Earlier, Ram Bishnu Singh Sardar, a resident of Chal Hansa in Arsha, Purulia, who filed his nomination papers for Purulia Zilla Parishad, was also allegedly beaten up and asked to withdraw his nomination by a gang of armed men who attacked him and three other persons. The injured were admitted to Purulia Sadar Deben Mahato hospital in a critical condition.

In another incident, a candidate of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha(Soren) Rameswar Mahato was hacked to death at Rajbandh under Muffasil police station of Purulia district last evening.

JMM(S), West Bengal, president Ajit Mahato, has called a 12-hour bandh tomorrow protesting the brutal murder.

UNI XC LL RC KD RAI1849