Agartala, April 5: Senior CPM leader and chairperson of Kamalpur nagar panchayat in Tripura’s Dhalai district, Tapan Roy, was hacked to death near his home on Jail Road last night.

Roy, the secretary of CPM’s Kamalpur town local committee, was returning home from the party office around 9.45 last night on his bike when he was waylaid by a group of persons on Jail Road. The attackers repeatedly hit him with dao, machetes, daggers and spears.

Roy’s family and neighbours rushed to the spot on hearing his cries. They gave chase and caught one of the assailants, Amit Deb. The others, however, crossed the Dhalai river to safety. Deb was handed over to the police.

Roy, 36, was rushed to the Kamalpur hospital, where he was declared “brought dead”.

Sources said Deb, an unemployed youth, had close ties with Roy.“He is yet to be interrogated. We have received information that Deb had asked Roy for a loan and was assured of help,” sources added.

The CPM has called a 24-hour Kamalpur subdivsion bandh today to protest the killing. A delegation of senior party leaders from Agartala, headed by party secretary Baidyanath Mazumder, visited Roy’s home today.

The party identified Deb as a “Congress activist”.

Police sources blamed Roy’s murder on the dissension within the CPM in Kamalpur.