A Trinamul Congress activist was beaten to death allegedly by his distant relative having proximity to the BJP over a personal feud in South 24-Parganas district on Monday morning.

Debasish Pramanik, 34, allegedly assaulted Mangal Pramanik, 32, with a bamboo pole while the latter was on his way to a fish stockyard at Gobindapur village near Bishnupur. While Mangal worked as an employee of a fish trader in Sonarpur, Debasish is a labourer at a construction firm.

Some local residents rescued Mangal from a pool of blood and took him to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Trinamul sources said Mangal was the treasurer of the party’s Aadharmanik booth committee.

Police said Debasish was arrested follow his surrender. The police have started a murder case.

“A murder case has been started against the accused. Preliminary investigation suggests that a feud over family-related issues apparently led to the murder,” a senior police officer of Baruipur police district said.

Sources said the relationship between the two began to sour after Debasish had married Mangal’s cousin.

“A few days after the marriage, Debasish began to torture his wife. This angered Mangal, who warned Debasish on a number of occasions against domestic violence. There were often ugly brawls between the two,” a person related to both the families said.

“On Sunday, Mangal was present when Debasish allegedly tortured his wife. This angered Mangal and he slapped Debasish while warning him of legal action. In retaliation, Debasish beaten Mangal to death (this morning),” this person added.

Mangal’s father Sagar Pramanik said: “After the brawl yesterday (Sunday), Debasish had threatened my son with dire consequences. When I urged him to forgive my son and maintain peace with his wife, he left in anger...I was apprehending something terrible and it turned out to be true.”

In a separate incident, police have arrested three youths in connection with an alleged murder attempt on Trinamul’s Nabadwip councillor Gostho Bhattacharjee. On Sunday night, three youths armed with country-made firearms attacked the councillor who represents ward 22.

“I was trying to free myself from the clutches of the assailants. When some Trinamul workers joined me, we managed to grab the trio and informed police, who rushed in and seized a firearm and two motorcycles from them,” said Bhattacharjee.