Siliguri (PTI): West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's helicopter made an emergency landing at the Sevoke air base near Siliguri on Tuesday afternoon due to bad weather, officials said.

Banerjee was on the way to the Bagdogra airport after addressing an election rally in Jalpaiguri when her helicopter ran into bad weather while flying over the Baikunthapur forest, they said.

"It was raining very heavily here, and the pilot decided to make an emergency landing," an official told PTI.

After the incident, it was decided that Banerjee will travel by road to the Bagdogra airport, and then fly back to Kolkata, he said.

The chief minister was touring parts of northern West Bengal to campaign for the panchayat elections, the polling for which will be held on July 8.

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Auraiya: A 33-year-old man has been arrested in Auraiya for the alleged rape and murder of his 14-year-old cousin on the night of Raksha Bandhan, just hours after she had tied a rakhi on him.

According to police, the accused, identified as Surjeet, attempted to mislead investigators by staging the crime scene to look like a suicide. The incident occurred on Saturday night when Surjeet, reportedly in a state of heavy intoxication, went to his uncle's home where the victim lived. He is accused of sexually assaulting the sleeping teenager, killing her, and then hanging her body.

The victim's father discovered his daughter's body the next morning and alerted the authorities.

Officials immediately suspected foul play upon arriving at the scene. "Blood stains and other signs clearly indicated this was not suicide," stated Auraiya Superintendent of Police (SP), Abhijeet Shankar.

During the initial inquiry, Surjeet drew suspicion upon himself by aggressively answering questions that were intended for the victim's immediate family. A post-mortem examination subsequently confirmed that the minor had been sexually assaulted.

Following the forensic report, Surjeet was arrested. "He confessed to the crime during interrogation," SP Shankar confirmed.