Bhadreswar: The chairman of the Trinamul-run Bhadreswar Municipality paid with his life for objecting to alleged inflated bills routinely submitted by contractors hired by the civic body, police suspect.
Manoj Upadhyay, who was gunned down on a road late on Tuesday, had a month-and-a-half ago returned a Rs 1.5-crore bill submitted by a contractor for a road project in Chandernagore, sleuths said.
The 48-year-old had reportedly returned several similar bills submitted by contractors hired for infrastructure work in Chanditala, Rishra and other areas.
"These contractors have formed a cartel to bag almost all government contracts," a source in the Chandernagore police commissionerate said.
Officers suspect the contractors had plotted Upadhyay's murder in the hope that the civic body under a new head would approve all their pending "inflated" bills.
Officers probing the murder have collected files related to the contracts for several projects under Bhadreswar Municipality. They are going through the leader's call-list to find out whether any of the contractors had been in touch with him.
Upadhyay, who was riding pillion on a party colleague's bike around 11.45pm, stopped after hearing a voice in the dark call out "Dada". Around 10 men soon arrived at the spot on two-wheelers and gunned down the chairman.
A man named Munna Rai was arrested on Wednesday. An officer said they were looking for two others - Ratan Shaw and Raju Chaudhury.
"We are doing everything required to identify the murderers. A team of officers has been set up," said Mrinal Majumder, deputy commissioner, Bhadreswar. Around 500 residents gheraoed Bhadreswar police station on Thursday demanding arrest of the accused.
Bengal BJP chief Dilip Ghosh demanded that the murder probe be handed over to the National Investigation Agency.