KOLKATA: Union Home minister Amit Shah, who is presently visiting Bengal, met the families of the BJP’s youth wing leader, who was found dead hanging in an abandoned room in north Kolkata’s Cosspipore, on Friday and said the Home ministry took the incident seriously and sought a report from the state government.
He also said the probe into the 'political murder' of the BJP leader should be handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
Shah described the death of Arjun Chowrasia (27), who was the vice president of BJP’s Chiitpur mandal committee, as a 'political murder.'
"Yesterday, the Trinamool Congress-led government completed its first year of storming back to power for the third straight term in Bengal, and on the next day, the murder of our karyakarta took place. Political murders targeting workers and leaders of opposition parties are taking place across the state," said Shah after meeting Arjun's family members.
Chowrasia’s body was found around 7 am in the abandoned room of railway quarters with a rope tied around his neck, said police. No suicide note was recovered from his possession.
Accusing the police of highhandedness, Shah said even Arjun's family members were not spared.
"Chowrasia’s grandmother was beaten by the police. Our party will not sit idle. We have moved the court. We have also demanded video graphing of the post-mortem process. We have demanded the probe to be handed over to the CBI," said Shah.
The Union Home minister compared the Mamata Banerjee-led government’s tenure worse than the erstwhile Left Front’s regime in the state.
"The voice of the opposition is being throttled in Bengal. First, it used to be in the tenure of communists and now it is worse,’’ he pointed out.
Referring to the recent high court orders asking the CBI to take over the charges of investigations in several cases, Shah said this was the first time the central agency is probing into a record number of cases at a time in Bengal.
"It reflects the law and order situation in the state," he added.
BJP supporters did not allow the police to remove the body for five hours. Police personnel had to jostle with agitators and finally managed to remove the body.
Chowrasia’s family, too, demanded a CBI probe into his unnatural death.
"My brother was being threatened since last year’s Assembly elections. He was murdered. We don’t have faith in Kolkata police and this is why we are demanding a CBI probe," said Chowrasia’s sister Sunita.