KOLKATA: Hours after Union Home minister Amit Shah left Kolkata ending his two-day visit to West Bengal and blaming the hand of Trinamool Congress behind the BJP youth wing leader's death, the ruling party on Saturday hit out at Shah for trying to influence the investigation by calling it a 'political murder' well before the investigators came to a conclusion.
Firhad Hakim, TMC leader and a minister in Mamata Banerjee’s cabinet, expressed his doubt over the findings of the post-mortem report conducted at Command Hospital (Army) following an order by the Kolkata High Court.
"How could the Union Home minister opine that the Arjun Chowrasia, the vice-president of BJP’s local youth wing, was a victim of political murder hours after his body was found? Even the autopsy of the body was not conducted when he issued such a statement. It was clearly aimed to influence the investigation process,’’ said the Transport and Housing minister.
The body of Chowrasia was found hanging with a rope tied around his neck in an abandoned room of the railway quarters near his house.
Shah, after visiting Chowrasia’s family in their north Kolkata’s Cossipore house on Friday, said the BJP workers were being targeted by the TMC across the state and the death of 27-year-old Chowrasia was a brutal political murder.
However, the deceased’s family, who moved the high court seeking order to defer the post-mortem, is yet to lodge a complaint with the police claiming murder. The local police registered an unnatural death case.
The high court passed an order directing that the post-mortem be conducted at the Command Hospital in the presence of the head of the forensic department of the state-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital and an expert from the AIIMS hospital in Nadia’s Kalyani.
Hakim also raised doubt on the credibility of the findings of the post-mortem.
"The post-mortem was conducted at the Army hospital. Before the process was started, the Union Home Minister has expressed his opinion in public. I have my doubts on the post-mortem report," he said.
The BJP hit back at Hakim asking how could the TMC leaders describe Chowrasia’s death as a case of suicide?
"The condition of the body and other apparent pieces of evidence clearly indicated he was murdered. On what basis did the TMC leaders come to the conclusion of suicide theory?’’ asked BJP’s national vice-president Dilip Ghosh.
As part of the probe into Chowrasia’s death, Kolkata police initiated measures so that opposition political parties find no room to accuse the law enforcement agency of being biased or underplaying the incident.
‘’We installed CCTVs in and around the abandoned room of the railway quarters from where the body was recovered. The CCTVs are equipped with night-vision capacity. This is to ensure no one can tamper or collect evidence from the site,’’ said a senior officer of Kolkata police.
After the post-mortem, Chowrasia’s body was first taken to BJP’s headquarters in north Kolkata and then to his house. The saffron camp’s state president Sukanta Majumdar was present when the hearse was being taken to the deceased’s house. The body was cremated at the Nimtala crematorium in north Kolkata.