The body of a Congress leader from a village on the outskirts of Raiganj town, North Dinajpur district, was found hanging from a tree on Tuesday morning with a Trinamul flag covering his face, while a Trinamul worker from Cooch Behar district’s Dinhata sustained a bullet injury late on Monday.

Sources said Debesh Burman, 50, the booth president of Congress in Gouri panchayat area under Raiganj block of North Dinajpur had gone out of home on Monday evening for tea at a local stall, but did not return home till late night. His family members started a search.

On Tuesday morning, some residents spotted his body near his house hanging from a tree with the flag of Trinamul on his face. Police were told. Senior officials rushed to the spot from Raiganj. A sniffer dog was engaged.

“We will also send a forensic team for investigation. Our officers are waiting for the post-mortem report,” said North Dinajpur SP Sumit Kumar.

Burman, local sources said, was a CPM worker and a panchayat member till 2018. He then defected to the Congress.

His son Bidrohi alleged Burman was murdered. “We suspect some people killed him and hanged his body to make it look like suicide. We want their arrests,” he said.

District Congress president and former MLA Mohit Sengupta, however, said there was no point in jumping to conclusions.

“There was a flag of Trinamul but it does not mean Trinamul supporters murdered him. It may be a conspiracy. First, we need to know if it is suicide or murder. We want a thorough investigation,” said Sengupta.

BJP MLA of Raiganj Krishna Kalyani met bereaved family members. District BJP chief Basudeb Sarkar alleged Burman was murdered. “We suspect Trinamul,” he said.

District Trinamul leaders denied the charges. “The police should find out the truth. BJP is trying to malign our party,” said a district leader.

In Cooch Behar’s Gitaldaha-I panchayat under Dinhata-I block, Trinamul worker Sayed Hossain, in his early 30s, sustained a bullet injury in his leg late on Monday while he was having tea at Gitaldaha railway station.

Hossain, admitted to the subdivisional hospital in Dinhata, alleged that panchayat pradhan Abual Azad and his son, also Trinamul workers, planned the attack.

The incident again brought to the fore the infighting within Trinamul in Cooch Behar. Azad could not be contacted by this paper. No one has been arrested yet.