Calcutta, February 12: A known criminal shot dead a Kolkata Police officer in the city’s Garden Reach area on Tuesday morning in ugly violence over college elections.

Students affiliated to the students wings of the Congress and CPM were reported to have clashed with Trinamul Congress members, over the issue of nomination forms at the Hari Mohan Ghosh College on Tuesday morning.

Outsiders joined in using crude bombs and brickbats.

TV images broadcast on ABP Ananda showed a man shooting sub-inspector Tapas Choudhury of the special branch.

The criminal was said to be one Mokhtar.

Uniformed policemen at the site were clearly taken off guard.

A bystander also suffered gun-shot injuries.

Firhad Hakim, the local legislator who is also the state’s urban development minister, said the policeman who was shot died at a hospital.

Hakim claimed the shooting had no connection with the college elections.

Hakim, who visited the area immediately after the violence, said the police administration had been asked to take strong action against criminals responsible for the incident.

He alleged that criminals sheltered by the Congress and the CPM were involved in the incident.

A huge police contingent has been rushed to the area to bring the situation under control.