New Delhi: The West Bengal Congress’ Jhalda municipality councillor Tapan Kandu was shot dead in March due to a political rivalry with his nephew Dipak Kandu, a TMC leader, whom he defeated in civic polls a month earlier, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has alleged in its chargesheet.
Deepak Kandu, the son of Tapan Kandu’s brother Naren, contested the civic polls as a Trinamool Congress candidate from ward number two of Jhalda municipality, officials said.
Tapan Kandu snatched a rare victory for the Congress with 601 votes in an election which was otherwise dominated by the Trinamool Congress across the state.
The victory triggered a personal rivalry and Tapan Kandu was shot dead by assailants hired by his brother and nephew, the CBI has alleged.
It was alleged that Tapan Kandu was shot dead by three motorcycle-borne persons near his residence in Jhalda at around 5.15 pm on March 13 when he was returning with friends from an evening walk, CBI spokesperson R.C. Joshi said.
Kandu was rushed to Jhalda Hospital and from there taken to Ranchi Hospital where he was declared dead.
In its charge sheet filed before the chief judicial magistrate, Purulia, the CBI has named Tapan Kandu’s brother Naren Kandu, nephew Dipak Kandu, Kalebar Singh, Md Asik and Satyaban Pramanik as accused.
The CBI has invoked IPC sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and 302 (murder) among others against the accused.
The central probe agency had taken over the investigation of the case from the West Bengal Police on April 6, 2022, on the orders of the Calcutta high court, Joshi said.
Justice Rajasekhar Mantha had directed the CBI on April 4 to submit a report on its investigation in the case in 45 days.
The high court had ordered the probe by CBI on the petition of the Tapan Kandu’s widow Purnima who had alleged complicity of local police in the case.
Her counsel had submitted before the court that the Purulia superintendent of police, in a press conference, had given a clean chit to the inspector in charge of Jhalda police station even before the probe by the state police was completed.