TMC leader shot at in West Bengal's Jalpaiguri

A Trinamool Congress leader was shot at in West Bengal's Jalpaiguri district, police said on Friday. The incident happened on Thursday night near Songachi tea garden in the Malbazar area when Manoranjan Dey was returning to Alipurduar from Siliguri, they said.

Dey, an office-bearer of the Alipurduar Zilla Parishad, had stepped out of his vehicle near the tea garden when some men fired at him, police said. He has been admitted to a nursing home in Siliguri with a bullet injury in one of his legs, they said.

State Tourism Minister Goutam Deb visited Dey at the nursing home during the day. Speaking to the press, the minister alleged that BJP was behind the incident, a charge rubbished by the opposition party.

''Monoranjan Dey is an important leader, and miscreants fired three bullets at him when he stepped out of his vehicle near Malbazar. He had stopped there while he was on his way back to Alipurduar after finishing some personal work in Siliguri,'' Deb said. Police said they are probing the matter.