Tamluk, Sept. 22: The pradhan of a Trinamul Congress-run panchayat in Nandigram, who was an active member of the party-led resistance group during the 2007 land war, was killed this evening.

Unidentified assailants shot Nishikanta Mondal near his home in Sonachura minutes after he had stopped his motorbike and started talking on his mobile, the police said. The 55-year-old was rushed to Nandigram block hospital but was declared brought dead.

The Trinamul blamed the CPM for the murder. The CPM denied the allegation and saw the hand of Maoists with whom they claimed Mondal had developed “differences after being instrumental in bringing them” to the area during the 2007 land battle.

Mondal , a former CPM functionary in Nandigram Panchayat Samity, had left the party and joined Trinamul in 1999.

District Trinamul leader and local MP Subhendu Adhikary said: “Nishikanta babu was a prominent leader of the Bhoomi Uchchhed Pratirodh Committee and had lined up a string of development projects as a panchayat pradhan. The CPM had for long been planning to murder him to stall the development work.”

But Ashok Guria, district secretariat member of the CPM, denied the allegation, saying his party workers had fled Nandigram after Trinamul’s victory in the rural polls last year.

“All our leaders and active workers have fled their homes. So, Mondal couldn’t have been murdered by our workers. Maybe, he became a victim of a Maoist attack. Although he was instrumental in bringing the Maoists into Nandigram during the land war, of late he was having differences with them,” Guria said.

Mondal had fled home during the CPM’s recapture of Nandigram in November 2007. He couldn’t cast his vote in the rural polls.

The Telegraph reported two days back that Maoists had warned Trinamul activists in Nandigram they would “pay with their lives” if they didn’t stop threatening and extorting money from CPM activists.

This evening, villagers rushed out of their homes after hearing the gunshots and found Mondal lying on the ground next to his bike, his right hand still clutching the mobile. He was returning from Sonachura market, about 2km away from his home.

Subrata Manna, 35, a local farmer, was one of those who rushed out. “We immediately took him to Nandigram block hospital in a trekker. But the doctors declared him dead,” he said.

The police suspect the shots came from the bushes on the side of the road. “We think he (Nishikanta) stopped the motorcycle to take the call. We are investigating whether the assailants called him so that he was forced to stop,” a police officer said.