An accidental blast on Friday night in a bomb-making unit in a village in East Burdwan killed a person and injured another, prompting Katwa Trinamool MLA Rabindranath Chatterjee to claim on Saturday that the explosives might have been readied to target him or his party workers.

“Those criminals had a motive behind preparing those bombs. The ones making them might have planned to attack me or key party workers,” Chatterjee, also the president of the party’s East Burdwan district unit, told reporters while talking about the blast in Rajur village.

He alleged that those involved in making the explosives were linked to Jangal Sheikh, a notorious criminal who wanted to capture the region to take control of sand mines.

A source said villagers of Rajur heard an explosion on Friday night and discovered that the house of one Mantu Sheikh — who lived elsewhere — had been blown apart.

They found two persons amid the debris. One was dead, the other seriously injured.

Police said the deceased was Barkat Sheikh, 45, of Nanoor in Birbhum, suspected to have been hired by goons to make crude bombs.

The injured person, Tufan Chowdhury, a Rajur villager, is hospitalised.

Sayak Das, superintendent of police in East Burdwan, said: “One person was killed and another injured in the explosion. We have arrested a person for alleged involvement in the incident. Police are investigating all aspects, including the motive behind making the crude bombs.”

Though the use of crude bombs to gain political control is not new in Bengal, the bomb culture hit the headlines recently after the death of 10-year-old Tamanna Khatun in Nadia’s Molandi on June 23. A bomb, allegedly hurled during a victory rally of a Trinamool candidate in the Kaliganj bypoll in Nadia, killed the child.

Following Friday night’s explosion and Chatterjee’s statement, multiple sources within the party claimed that the bomb culture was now creating fear even among ruling party leaders.

Jangal was affiliated with the CPM when the Left was in power. After the Left’s ouster in 2011, he allegedly became close to local Trinamool leaders. He is currently out of Katwa, especially after Chatterjee’s rise in influence, replacing animal resources development minister Swapan Debnath as the party’s district president.

“Jangal was close to one or two of our leaders who tried to use him. But I believe criminals have no political allegiance,” Chatterjee said, alleging Jangal wanted to return to regain control of sand mines.