Kolkata, Dec 10 (IANS) Police exchanged gunfire with a group of Maoists in a village in West Bengal’s West Midnapore district Thursday night. While police said no one was injured, a union minister of the Trinamool Congress claimed one person was killed and six others injured in the gunbattle.
The state police control room here said no one was injured in the firing in Satpati village, but union Minister of State for Shipping Mukul Roy said one person was killed and six wounded in firing by the police.

An officer manning the control room told IANS that around 40-50 Maoists attacked the Pirakata outpost under Salboni police station around 8 p.m. “The police returned the fire. But there are no reports of any injury,” the officer said.

The outpost has been housing the combined security forces comprising central military troopers and state armed policemen who have been deployed to flush out Maoists from Lalgarh.

Roy, a senior leader of the state’s main opposition Trinamool Congress, alleged that the state police opened fire on an “unarmed crowd of villagers” who were protesting against an earlier instance of misbehaviour by the cops.

“The police fired indiscriminately. I have received reports that one person died while half a dozen others sustained injuries and had to be hospitalised,” he said.