Kolkata: Close on the heels of a teenaged BJP worker’s death under mysterious circumstances in Purulia, another young BJP worker was found hanging from a power transmission tower in the same area on Saturday.
The deceased, Dulal Kumar (32), was a leader of the BJP’s OBC cell in Purulia district which has a large tribal population.
The BJP has called a 12-hour bandh in the district on Sunday to protest what it described as a political murder.
The BJP’s central leadership tore into the Mamata Banerjee government on Saturday, with party chief Amit Shah tweeting a photograph of Dulal Kumar hanging from the tower, along with this message: “Distressed to know about yet another killing of BJP karyakarta Dulal Kumar in Balrampur, West Bengal. This continued brutality and violence in the land of West Bengal is shameful and inhuman. Mamata Banerjee’s govt has completely failed to maintain law and order in the state.” The West Bengal government, under pressure following two incidents of similar nature, has ordered a probe by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID).
The state government also removed superintendent of police (Purulia) Joy Biswas for calling the first death a “murder” and categorising the second one as suicide while ruling out any political angle before the probe ends.
The Purulia district witnessed significant rise in the saffron party’s vote share in the recently held panchayat elections in a neck-and-neck battle with the Trinamool Congress.
On May 30 morning, 18-year-ol Trilochon Mahato, a BJP worker, who had been missing since May 29 evening, was found hanging from a tree in the forest area of Supurdih village in Balaramapur.
A poster found on the ground had a line written in Bengali on it — Aatharo Bochhor Boyose BJP Rajneeti (BJP politics at the age of 18) — along with a warning not to get involved with the BJP. The same line in Bengali was found written in pen on the back of the victim’s T-shirt after the police brought down the body.
The BJP had then accused the Trinamul of killing Trilochon.
On Friday evening, Dulal Kumar returned home after participating in a BJP protest of gheraoing police stations. At night he left his home on his motorbike. His family members alleged that when he did not return, they tried calling him on his cellphone but the call was disconnected.
After midnight Dulal’s motorcycle was found lying near a pond, but there was no trace of him.
On Saturday morning Dulal was found hanging from a rope tied to a high-tension tower for power supply at Dava village in Balarampur where he lived.
When villagers saw the body, they erupted in fury. A police team rushed to the spot to recover the body and send it for post-mortem. But when villagers prevented them from doing so, there were clashes. The body was finally recovered after the police lathicharged the villagers.
According to Dulal’s family, he was abducted and murdered by Trinamul workers before the body was hung from the HT tower. His wife alleged that workers of the ruling party had threatened her husband on May 31. She demanded that her husband’s assailants should meet the same fate he did.
Additional director general of police (law and order) Anuj Sharma said that the CID has been entrusted to probe both the deaths as a conspiracy is suspected in both. He added that the role of outsiders is also under investigation.
Earlier, talking about Dulal’s death, SP Purulia had said, “He went missing after going out of his home to attend to nature’s call at around 8 pm. In the morning he was found hanging from the tower. We examined the place of occurrence. It appears to be a case of suicide… After post-mortem, the cause of death will be known. I did not find any political angle behind the death.”
On Trilochan’s death Mr Biswas had said, “We initiated a case under Section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code. Preliminary investigation indicates a personal enmity or grudge behind the death. A probe is being conducted properly. The actual culprit will be arrested based on the evidence available in the probe.”
By Saturday evening Mr Biswas was removed from his post. Akash Megharia, who was the special superintendent of police (CID), has taken charge as SP Purulia.
