West Bengal Police makes first arrest in Thursday’s murder of three local Trinamool Congress leaders

The West Bengal Police on Saturday made the first arrest in Thursday’s murder of three local Trinamool Congress leaders at Canning in South 24 Parganas district.

The police also formed a six-member special investigation team on Saturday to probe the case.

The arrested person, Aftabuddin, is allegedly a close aide of two prime suspects: Rafiqul and Basiruddin. Six people including Rafiqul and Basiruddin named in FIRs registered in the case are yet to be arrested, police said.


Aftabuddin has been remanded in police custody for 14 days by a court. He has allegedly given information to the other accused about Swapan Majhi, a panchayat member, and the two others who were murdered, people in the know of the case said.

Aftabuddin's wife claimed that her husband had been framed wrongly in the case. "We demand a CBI investigation and we will move to Calcutta High Court to get justice," she said.

Majhi and the other two Trinamool leaders, Jhhantu Halder and Bhutnath Pramanik, were shot at point-blank range and then hacked in Canning, known to be a Trinamool stronghold, when they were going to attend a party meeting riding a motorcycle

A 13-member Trinamool delegation, led by MPs Kakoli Ghoshdostidar and Mala Roy, and Canning East MLA Shaukat Mollah on Saturday visited Canning and held a meeting with local party workers. They also handed over compensation to the families of the three local leaders who were murdered.