Malda, May 25: Police will exhume the body of a 40-year-old man who was beaten to death, allegedly by CPM supporters at a village in Bamungola for voting for the Trinamul Congress in the panchayat polls.

Demda Murmu was dragged out of his house in Bijlidanga on Tuesday evening and beaten up. He died of injuries at a private nursing home in Malda town, about 70km away, on Thursday and was later buried in his village.

Tala Maddi, Demda’s wife, had gone to the police station to file a complaint but had been allegedly driven away by the police.

Today, the Trinamul Congress block president at Bamungola, Dhirajmohan Chakrabarty, led a team of supporters to the police station and helped Tala file an FIR naming the CPM members who had taken him away from his house on that day.

The officer-in-charge of Bamungola police station, Atreyee Sen, said the villagers initially told him that it was a “family” matter, which would be resolved between themselves. “However, we have started a case based on the complaint filed by the victim’s wife and we will exhume the body and send it for post-mortem tomorrow,” Sen said. No one has been arrested.

Chakrabarty said Mamata Banerjee would be apprised of the incident and she would convey it to the governor. “The victim has been working for the Trinamul Congress for the past four years.” The party would launch an agitation if the culprits were not arrested, Chakrabarty added.

The CPM’s district secretariat member and MLA from Habibpur, Khagen Murmu, said the incident was not related to politics. “It was a family-related quarrel and those who came to blows were all intoxicated at that time. People involved in the fighting and the person who died all belonged to our party. Demda was admitted to hospital by our supporters,” Murmu claimed.

After Demda was injured in the “fighting”, those who were pitted against him had taken him to the local health centre first and then to the district hospital before admitting him to the nursing home where he died, Murmu said.