Kolkata: The body of BJP leader Prithviraj Naskar was found inside the party office in Usthi, South 24 Parganas district, West Bengal, a police officer confirmed on Saturday. Naskar was responsible for managing the party’s social media accounts in the district.

The BJP blamed the TMC for the killing, while police, after arresting a woman in connection with the murder, suggested that the motive could be personal.

Naskar’s blood soaked body was found at the party office on Friday night. His family said that he had been missing since November 5.

The women who got arrested, confessed to having killed Naskar with a sharp weapon, a senior police said.

“We are exploring the angle of the deceased having been involved in a relationship and any quarrel with the arrested person,” he informed reporters.

The officer said a police team forced open the front door and a locked collapsible gate of the party office before discovering the body. The suspected assailant likely escaped through a rear door.

 After a preliminary investigation and phone tracking, the woman was arrested from a nearby area. During questioning, she confessed to committing the crime, police said.

It was being investigated if she was aided and abetted by anyone else, he said.

The BJP and TMC were engaged in a war of words after the murder.

BJP state president Sukanta Majumdar alleged that local TMC activists were behind Naskar’s murder, intending to scare off the saffron party’s supporters in the region.

In a post on X, Majumdar said, “Our fight will continue until justice is served and the killers of martyr Prithviraj brought to light. BJP remains resolute in ending the bloodthirsty and oppressive rule of CM Mamata Banerjee in Bengal.” The BJP state unit alleged in another X post that the party’s district social media convenor was abducted, tortured and murdered by TMC goons.

“The police ignored his family’s desperate pleas for help,” it claimed.

Senior TMC leader and former Rajya Sabha MP Kunal Ghosh claimed that the BJP knows the exact reason behind Naskar’s death but peddles falsehoods implicating the TMC.

Ghosh claimed in an X post that there are reports about the deceased having personal enmity with more than one person.

The injury in some parts of his body showed animosity and contempt of the assailant towards the man, the TMC leader claimed, expressing hope that the investigation would cover all these angles.

Meanwhile, Naskar’s father claimed that his son had earned the wrath of some local TMC activists and the police after putting up placards demanding justice for the R G Kar hospital victim during the recent Durga Puja festival in the area.

“My son was warned of dire consequences by local TMC leaders for organising protests on the R G Kar issue during the festive season,” the father said.

(with agency inputs)