KOLKATA: State BJP leaders met Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday and demanded a CBI probe into the deaths of its two members who were found hanging in West Bengal's East Midnapore and South 24 Parganas districts this week.
Lok Sabha MPs Soumitra Khan and Nishith Pramanik met Shah in New Delhi and urged for an investigation by the CBI into the deaths of 52-year-old Gautam Patra in Ghora Mara area of South 24 Parganas on Thursday and Purnachandra Das (44) in the Ramnagar area of the East Midnapore district on Wednesday.
"The law and order situation in West Bengal has completely broken down. Regularly BJP workers are being murdered and are hanged by the tree to project it as a suicide," they said in a statement.
"In the last two days, two of our party workers have been found hanging from a tree. We demand CBI inquiry into the killing of our two BJP workers. We have requested Amit Shah Ji to order CBI inquiry into both the incident," they said.
Das was found hanging from a tree near his home by locals on Wednesday evening, police said.
The district BJP alleged that he was killed by Trinamool Congress workers as he had refused to change sides.
The TMC rubbished the allegation as "politically motivated", and said a police investigation would bring out the truth.
The BJP claimed that Patra was its booth-level worker and was killed by the TMC, an allegation dubbed as baseless by the ruling party.
Meanwhile, police said Patra suspectedly ended his life after being ridiculed for allegedly having sex with a cow.
His body was found hanging from a tree on Thursday.
Preliminary investigation suggested that the deceased was accused of having "unnatural physical activities with a cow in the village last week over which he was being subjected to public ridicule.
A handwritten note has been recovered from his pocket", a senior police officer said.
A village court was held on Wednesday over his alleged bestiality but no punishment was given, the officer said.
Earlier this month, senior BJP leader and MLA Debendra Nath Roy was found dead under mysterious circumstances near his house in North Dinajpur district.
Roy was found hanging from a ceiling, outside a closed shop near his home in the Hemtabad area of the district, police said.
His family and the party alleged that it was a "cold- blooded murder by TMC".
The police, however, quoting the post-mortem report had said that Roy died due to hanging, and no other injury mark was found on the body.