Armed activists during a CPM-Trinamul clash in Nanoor last year

Bolpur/Calcutta, July 16: Police today claimed to have found a large cache of arms during raids in Birbhum’s Nanoor, a little over a fortnight after CPM leader Ananda Das was murdered by alleged Trinamul Congress goons in the area.

It wasn’t clear which party had amassed the weapons but the Congress today sought to move an adjournment motion in the House, accusing “supporters of the ruling party” of stockpiling arms.

The Congress legislators resorted to shouting when Speaker Hashim Abdul Halim refused to allow any discussion on the motion.

Humayun Kabir, who took over from Rabindranath Mukherjee as the Birbhum police chief following Das’s murder, today said five muskets, a country-made gun, 900 live bombs, 50 live cartridges and a hand-made cannon were seized during raids on the houses of two farmers at a Nanoor village. Shymal Saha and Alizan are absconding, Kabir added.

“We are probing if the country-made gun was used to kill Das,” he said.

On June 29, Das, a former CPM MLA, was dragged out of his house by an armed gang and shot dead. The mob also set ablaze a neighbouring CPM party office.

The Nanoor violence had rocked the Assembly and chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had removed Mukherjee in an unprecedented move from the floor of the House. Bhattacharjee had said Mukherjee had “failed to deal with the situation in Nanoor firmly ”.

In the House today, Ajoy De of the Congress said while tabling the adjournment motion: “The Opposition has been complaining that the supporters of the ruling party have been stockpiling illegal arms in the state. Illegal arms are also being smuggled from the neighbouring states. But the police are not taking any action.”

Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee has called on governor M.K. Narayanan several times, urging him to ask the state government to seize the “illegal arms”.