A day after the murder of a former CPI-M legislator in West Bengal's Burdwan district, police Monday said that the preliminary probe had not revealed any political angle. They said the victim's mobile call details revealed links with "several women".
Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader Dilip Sarkar, who represented Barabani constituency from 2006-11, was Sunday shot dead while on his morning walk.
"The person who filed the FIR said the bullets were fired by a woman who was riding pillion on a motorbike," Additional Director General of Police Banibrata Basu said.
"Taking cue from this, we have checked his call details, which showed he had links with several women," he said.
"We are exploring this. At the same time, we are also looking into other possibilities. As per the preliminary probe, there is no political angle."
When reporters sought to known what Basu meant by Sarkar's links with women, the officer said: "We have got the phone numbers of five-six women. We don't know yet what sort of links he has with them or whether it was linked to the murder. Please don't draw any conclusion."
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CPI-M state secretary Biman Bose has described the shooting as a planned conspiracy by the Trinamool to terrorise the opposition in the wake of the upcoming panchayat polls in the state.
But Trinamool Congress general secretary Mukul Roy attributed Sarkar's death to a factional feud within the CPI-M, and hinted at the involvement of the mafia.