Behrampore, Sept. 15: Tension gripped the town today after the son of a local Congress leader was abducted from a village in Murshidabad district, allegedly by CPM-backed criminals.

Congress activists blocked National Highway 34 for over an hour demanding the arrest of those involved.

Police said the criminals raided the house of Jangipur Congress secretary and member of the local panchayat samiti Rasul Amin in Haroa village in the early hours and kidnapped his son, Mujibur Rehman.

According to Mujibur’s family members, nearly 15 armed miscreants raided the house and hurled bombs before forcibly taking away Mujibur at gunpoint. “We were able to identify 10 miscreants and named them in the FIR. We fear that my husband might be murdered,” said Mujibur’s wife, Beli Bibi.

District police superintendent Niraj Kumar Singh said a case of kidnapping was lodged on the basis of a complaint by Beli Bibi. “I have asked officer in-charge of Jangipur subdivision Nirmal Bhattacharya to probe the matter. If this proves to be a case of kidnapping, those involved will be arrested.”

Preliminary investigation reveals that a long-standing dispute over a water body in the village in Suti, about 270 km from Calcutta, might be one of the reasons behind the kidnapping, said an official probing the case.

District Congress leaders said defence minister and PCC chief Pranab Mukherjee was informed as Suti falls under his parliamentary constituency.

District Congress vice-president Mohammed Sohrab threatened to launch a vigorous movement if police delayed picking up the “CPM-backed anti-socials”. But Jangipur municipality chariman and member of the Murshidabad district CPM committee Mriganka Bhattacharya said the incident had nothing to do with politics. “Our party is unnecessarily being dragged into the controversy. This kidnapping may be an outcome of a dispute over a water body in the village.”