Kolkata, Dec 7 (IANS): A video has gone viral showing a top level Trinamool Congress district leader sitting in her office with a gun in her hand in West Bengal's Malda district. The incident has triggered a political controversy in the state.

The leader in question -- Mrinalini Mondal Maity -- is not only the President of the Old Malda Panchayat Samity but is also the president of Malda district Trinamool Congress.

Though Mrinalini claimed that the photograph was nearly one year old, the opposition was not ready to buy her version. According to the opposition, this is not the first time, she has been in controversy on several occasions earlier also. Recently Mrinalini's husband was accused of beating an employee mercilessly inside the Block Development Office (BDO). She has been accused of shielding her husband after the incident.

"Keeping arms is their culture and she is only following the tradition. In the last 11 years they have put the state as well as Malda on a heap of gunpowder. If you search you might get bombs and AK-47 even. That has become a part of their culture," a senior BJP leader said.

Speaking to the media, Trinamool Congress district President Krishnendu Narayan Chowdhury said, "It is not justified to display arms in a government office. Police will find out whether the gun was real or fake. Law will take its own course."