A clash between two groups in Kolkata resulted in bombs being hurled and bullets fired, leaving two injured and leading to multiple arrests. Police are investigating the incident and reviewing CCTV footage.
In the aftermath of the violence, the police had arrested over 300 suspected miscreants in connection with over 60 FIRs which were lodged at various police stations in Murshidabad.
Amid criticism over his absence from violence-hit Murshidabad in West Bengal, TMC leaders defended Baharampur MP Yusuf Pathan, saying he is "busy with the IPL." TMC sources expressed unhappiness with Pathan for not visiting the district during last week's communal clashes. Three people were killed in the clashes, which erupted during protests against recent amendments to the Waqf Act. The BJP seized the opportunity to criticize the ruling party, with Union Minister Sukanta Majumdar saying, "Bengal is burning under the indulgence of TMC leaders. But TMC MP Yusuf Pathan is busy sipping tea as Hindus get slaughtered. This is the true face of the TMC."
The situation remained tense but peaceful during the day, amid heavy police deployment in the area.
Sporadic incidents of unrest marred the West Bengal bypolls, with a local Trinamool Congress worker Ashok Shaw dying following a crude bomb attack in Bhatpara, an area adjoining Naihati assembly constituency where voting was underway.
After an old video clip of a girl being assaulted by a group of people in West Bengal's North 24 Parganas district came into circulation, the police initiated a suo motu case and arrested two persons.
West Bengal minister and Trinamool Congress leader Shashi told reporters in Kolkata that it is surprising that the BJP had taken a team from Sandeshkhali in West Bengal's North 24 Parganas district and gave a 'false portrayal' to none other than the President of the country.
Villagers alleged that a seven-month-old child was snatched from her mother's lap and thrown away by miscreants in Sandeshkhali.
In the latest tape that surfaced on Saturday night, Kayal was heard saying that 70 women got Rs 2,000 each for taking part in protests against Sheikh who was arrested and later suspended by the police.
Saifuddin Laskar (47), TMC area president of Bamungachi area in Joynagar was shot dead from close range near his house by miscreants when he went out to offer prayers in the morning, the police said.
The Supreme Court on Monday refused to entertain a PIL seeking a court-monitored CBI or SIT probe into the violence in West Bengal's Sandeshkhali village, saying the incidents cannot be compared to the savagery in Manipur.
Sandeshkhali, a village in North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal, has been at the centre of a political storm for nearly a month and has witnessed unprecedented protests over allegations of sexual abuse by scores of women against a local Trinamool Congress leader.
West Bengal Chief Minister West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee visited Bogtui village in the state's Birbhum district where eight members of a family were burnt alive after a local Trinamool Congress leader was killed.
Another explosion "linked to illegal firecrackers" took place in West Bengal on Monday, the third such blast within a span of just seven days.
Days after the prime accused in the arson and violence in Bengal's Bogtui village was found hanging in a temporary office of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the probe agency on Wednesday shifted the makeshift set up in Rampurhat to the metropolis, a senior official said.
These are the first arrests made by the CBI since it took over the probe into the March 21 killings in Bogtui village following the Calcutta high court's order.
One was nabbed from the West Bengal-Jharkhand boundary in Birbhum, one from Rampurhat and the third from Malda district on Tuesday night, a police officer said.
As per preliminary findings of the forensic experts, who conducted the tests on the charred bodies found inside the houses that were allegedly set on fire by unidentified people early on Tuesday, the victims were first badly beaten up and then burnt alive, an official told PTI from Rampurhat hospital.
Dismissing the allegation, BJP district general secretary Shyamal Roy claimed that the murder was a fallout of infighting within the ruling party.
In the over 20-page report, the central probe agency has also stated that the seven persons whose charred bodies were recovered from inside one of the burnt houses in Bogtui village, were "assaulted before being burnt alive".
Experts of the Central Forensic Science Laboratory, Delhi, who arrived here on Friday, collected samples from the place of occurrence in Bogtui village, which is almost deserted following the gruesome incident on the night of March 21.
A class 9 student was allegedly raped on April 4 in Hanskhali in West Bengal's Nadia district during a birthday party at the house of the prime accused, a local Trinamool Congress leader's son.
Hours after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee took a tough stance and ordered the hunting down of all suspects of the Birbhum carnage including her party colleagues, the police on Thursday arrested a local Trinamool Congress boss Anarul Hossain from near a hotel in the pilgrimage town of Tarapith.
Sporadic incidents of violence and allegations of booth jamming marred the voting process in the second phase.
'I can only say that it was a revenge killing. We have seen everything from inside our houses. We ran into our dwellings on hearing a mob approaching Sonu's house and hurling bombs. After that, I don't know anything'
Violence erupted at the Tata Motors plant site in Singur on Sunday when police fired rubber bullets and teargas at Krishi Jami Rakhsha Committee activists when they hurled bombs and bricks in a bid to enter the area.
It has been alleged in the petition that there was a delay in releasing BJP member Priyanka Sharma despite the apex court's order granting bail to her.
The Chinese community in the city is one of the largest in the country and is apprehensive that the escalation of the conflict between the two Asian giants would hamper their lives and livelihood.
Tapas, the TMC upa-panchayat pradhan of the area, was absconding ever since his name surfaced in the first information report lodged by the family of Kaushik Purkait who was beaten to death on Monday night.
Eleven persons were injured in a clash between the Trinamool Congress and Congress party workers at Sabong in West Midnapore district as the first phase of panchayat polls began on Thursday in West Bengal. In another incident, senior Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Surya Kanto Mishra was involved in an altercation with local Trinamool Congress supporters outside a polling booth at Khadurdah gram panchayat area in West Midnapore district.
The naked body of a girl, who tried to save her father from being beaten by locals for failing to pay for a rented tractor at a village meeting and then refusing to follow a kangaroo court's order of licking spit, was found lying on railway tracks at Dhupguri in Jalpaiguri district.
Clashes were reported from Kharagpur in West Midnapore district, Narayanpur in North 24 Parganas, and Alipurduar town in north Bengal, among others.
Sharma was arrested on May 10 by the West Bengal Police under section 500 (defamation) of the IPC and under other provisions of the Information Technology Act on the complaint of a local Trinamool Congress leader Vibhas Hazra.
The SC termed the arrest as 'prima facie arbitrary'.
Khardah is no ordinary constituency. It is the electoral battleground of two economists-turned-finance ministers.
Three persons, including husband of a Communist Party of India-Marxist candidate, were killed on Monday and several others injured in violence during the second phase of panchayat elections in West Bengal where 75 per cent polling was recorded.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday "strongly disapproved" incidents of vandalism of statues in certain parts of the country and spoke to Home Minister Rajnath Singh on the matter.