Humayun Kabir, 40, a Trinamool Congress (TMC) worker, died in an explosion while making crude bombs on the roof of his house in the Shamsergunj area of Bengal’s Murshidabad district on Saturday night. His ten-year-old son also sustained some injury.

TMC however claimed that no party worker was involved in the incident.

Sub-divisional police officer (Jangipur) Prasenjit Banerjee said, “Preliminary investigation shows that Kabir was making bombs on the roof of his house. One of the bombs went off accidentally and he was fatally injured. His minor son was also injured. We have started an investigation but no arrest has been made yet.”

Local people told the police that Kabir used to work as a part time labourer in a bidi factory. They said they heard a loud explosion around 9 pm on Saturday. They rushed to Kabir’s house and found him lying in a pool of blood.

Kachinur Bewa, mother of the deceased, said, “Kabir went to the roof after having dinner. There was an explosion within a few minutes.”

Officers at Shamserganj police station said Kabir had been arrested a few times in the past and had a criminal record. They alleged that the family removed the bomb making materials to wipe out the evidence.

The mother of the deceased denied the allegation. “My son was not associated with any criminal activity. We suspect that someone hurled a bomb at our house,” she said.

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Goutam Ghosh, TMC spokesperson in Murshidabad, said, “No one in our party is associated with the incident. We have requested the police to probe the matter impartially.”

On July 3, two men died while making bombs in Suti, located next to Shamserganj. District police officers suspect that local criminals have started hoarding bombs and firearms before the coming assembly polls. Polls in the district have always been marked by violence.

At Khanakul in Hooghly district, where a Bharatiya Janata Party worker was killed on Saturday allegedly by TMC workers, the opposition party observed a bandh on Sunday. The BJP worker was killed when he and his party colleagues were trying to hoist the national flag. Six people were arrested in the case till Sunday afternoon.