At least 30 persons, including police personnel, were injured when a group of BJP-led villagers clashed with the police after a 15-year-old girl was found murdered at Chachuraguchh in Sonapur under the Chopra police station area in North Dinajpur district today.

The protesting villagers also torched three NBSTC buses and three police vehicles on National Highway 31.

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They also damaged many private vehicles on the road. Police had to resort to lathi-charge and use tear gas canisters to disperse the mob, it is learnt.

“The protest turned nasty after BJP activists joined the villagers in the agitation,” sources said.

The BJP also claimed that police fired live several rounds of live bullets. While the police denied the claim, no one was found with bullet injuries, sources said.

BJP leaders claimed that Trinamul Congress-backed goons killed the girl, the daughter of a BJP booth president, after raping her, a charge quickly denied by TMC leaders.

“Villagers found the girl lying dead in the fields in the village early today morning. They claimed that the girl was gang-raped and killed. Demanding arrest of the criminals, locals and BJP activists blocked National Highway31 and the Chopra-Haptiaguchh State Highway. When police tried to open the roadblock, the protesters hurled stones and bombs at the police,” a local source said.

President of the North Dinajpur BJP Committee, Biswajit Lahiri, said: “Some criminals of a particular community and backed by TMC leaders killed the innocent minor girl after raping her. When villagers and BJP activists were demanding arrest of the criminals, police lathi-charged them and fired several rounds of bullets, in which around 25 of our activists were injured. Last week, our Hemtabad MLA Debendranath Roy was also killed by TMC-backed criminals. They have started attacking the Rajbangshi population with directions from TMC leaders. We will begin a stern agitation against it soon. The president of the Chopra Block of the TMC, Jakir Abedin, however, said that his party had no connection with the killing. “It is a false allegation against our party. We also want police to arrest the criminals,” he said.

A police officer at the Chopra police station said they have started investigations and that the body was sent to the Islampur Sub Divisional hospital for post-mortem.

The Superintendent of Police of the Islampur Police district, Sachin Makkar, could not be reached on the phone for comment. Bista blames state Darjeeling’s BJP MP Raju Bista said he was deeply hurt and enraged at the heinous murder of the 15-year-old child. Though in North Dinajpur district, Chopra Block falls under the Darjeeling Lok Sabha constituency.

“She had only recently completed her Madhyamik (class X) exams,” Mr Bista said.

“Locals have informed me that she was raped and poisoned. In the past few years, Chopra has seen exponential rise in illegal infiltration and related rise in crime as well. This once peaceful region has today become a hotbed of crime and criminals, who receive political patronage from the party in power. Crime, especially against women, has risen sharply, yet the West Bengal government has turned a blind eye to it. Despite having a woman as the Chief Minister, today sadly West Bengal ranks among the states with highest number of crimes against women,” Mr Bista said in a release.

“Given that Chopra lies in the critical ‘Chicken Neck’ region, increasing instances of crime do not bode well for the safety and security of our nation. Any strife here can pose grave national security risk for our country. I strongly feel that the Central Government will need to intervene directly and take strict measures to ensure that peace in the region is not disturbed,” he added.

According to him, he has requested Home Minister Amit Shah and Governor Jagdeep Dhankar to ensure investigations into today’s incident by central agencies.