The brother-in-law of a BJP candidate in the July 8 rural polls was killed in Cooch Behar early on Sunday allegedly by Trinamul-backed goons.

The BJP alleged the murder was Trinamul’s intimidation tactic so that the saffron candidate would withdraw her nomination. Denying the charges, Trinamul said there was nothing political in the murder of 28-year-old Sambhu Das.

Sambhu, a private tutor and brother-in-law of local BJP leader Bisakha Das, was dragged to a jute field by criminals in the small hours of Sunday and stabbed. Bisakha is a BJP candidate from Kismat Dasgram gram panchayat of Dinhata.

The Cooch Behar killing comes at a time when Opposition leaders are accusing the ruling Trinamul of mounting pressure on their candidates to withdraw nominations.

A source in Trinamul said the charges were embarrassing as party national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee had warned district leaders to ensure a free and fair panchayat election this time without a rerun of the violence-hit 2018 polls.

This time, 2,36,464 nominations were filed for 73,887 seats in the three-tier panchayat system. Sources said the number of nominations filed by the Opposition is around twice the number in 2018.

“Trinamul goons killed my brother Sambhu as they failed to convince us to withdraw Bisakha’s nomination,” said Chitta, Sambhu’s elder brother. “Bisakha’s husband is another brother of ours.”

He claimed that Sambhu, who went out of home after dinner, was chased by a group of Trinamul goons. Eventually, past midnight, he was dragged into a jute field and stabbed.

Trinamul claimed an “extramarital affair” behind the murder.

“There is no connection with politics in the death of Sambhu Das. He was not a political person but a private tutor. We have learned of an extramarital affair angle,” said north Bengal development minister and Trinamul’s Dinhata MLA Udayan Guha.

Union minister of state for home affairs Nisith Pramanik, also the MP of Cooch Behar, met the bereaved family and slammed Trinamul for coming out with a motive before the post-mortem report.

“It is unfortunate that Trinamul leaders are trying to cover their guilt by citing a different reason. We want a fair probe into the murder as Trinamul killed an innocent relative of one of our candidates,” he said.

Police officers declined to comment on any motive.

“Sambhu Das was stabbed.... His body was sent for post-mortem and a probe has started. No one has been arrested so far,” said Kumar Sunny Raj, the additional SP in Cooch Behar.

Charges of Trinamul threats and attacks on Opposition candidates to force them to quit the poll fray came from Malda, Hooghly, Birbhum, East Burdwan, North 24-Parganas, among other districts.

In Malda district, residents of Balupur village under Gopalpur gram panchayat of Manikchak prevented the “abduction” of two Congress candidates on Saturday night.

Tafzul Sheikh and Sariful Islam lodged police complaints on Sunday, claiming “Trinamul workers” tried to abduct them from a tea stall on Saturday night.

“Armed Trinamul workers were forcing us to board a vehicle when the villagers intervened. So the kidnappers fled,” Sheikh alleged.

In Birbhum on Sunday, villagers backed by the CPM and the Congress blocked a state highway in Bolpur against alleged Trinamul-backed intimidation to force their candidates to withdraw nomination papers.

“Trinamul forced at least 15 candidates of our party from here to withdraw nominations. It's a strategy by local Trinamul leaders to maximise the number of uncontested wins,” alleged CPM leader Gautam Ghosh.

Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari tweeted on Sunday that Opposition candidates were “being hounded during the scrutiny process” and “threatened to withdraw” nominations.

Trinamul state general secretary Kunal Ghosh denied the charges.

“Opposition parties have filed 1.5 lakh nomination papers this time. If they were not barred from filing nominations, why would we force them to withdraw?” said Ghosh.

Additional reporting by Soumya De Sarkar in Malda