WB: Another BJP Worker Killed In A Span Of 72 Hours; Body Found Hanging From A High-Tension Tower

West Bengal’s Purulia district witnessed the death of yet another BJP worker, this time the dead body was found hanging from a power transmission tower in Balrampur block.

According to the Quint, Dulal Kumar aged 32, a resident of Dava village, went missing on Friday night. His body was then found just 15 kms away from the site where the first incident of Trilochan Mahato’s death was reported.

Dulal Kumar who owned a grocery shop left his home on a motorcycle carrying food for his family. At around 8 o’clock in the night, villagers found Kumar’s bike on the road, however, he was nowhere to be found.

The villagers informed the cops, and a team was dispatched for a search mission. After a failed search in the night, the police and the villagers were astonished to find Dulal’s body hanging from the tower on Saturday morning.

The police then dismissed the mysterious death as “suicide”, angering the local villagers, who blocked the main road, damaged police vehicles and resorted to stone pelting when the police tried to take the body away, the Times of India reported. The police had claimed that Dulal was in a depressive condition over a family dispute.

However, as reported by News18, BJP alleges that the 32-year-old was killed by TMC supporters for participating in a thana gherao protest organised by the party.

The Previous Case

This is the second such political murder in a span of 72 hours, the first being that of Trilochan Mahato, the 18-year-old BJP worker whose body was found hanging from a tree in the same Balarampur block of Purulia district. According to reports, he had been actively working for the party in the panchayat elections in Balarampur.

Read Here: WB: 18-Yr-Old Found Hanged To Death For Being A BJP Worker

Mahato was found with a chilling note on his t-shirt “This is for doing BJP politics from age 18. Been trying to kill you since the vote. Failed. Today you are dead,” and was found hanging from a tree near his house at Balarampur in the district on 30th May, NDTV reported.

Criticising Mamta Banerjee, the chief minister of West Bengal, Amit Shah tweeted, “A young life full of possibilities was brutally taken out under state’s patronage. He was hanged on a tree just because his ideology differed from that of state-sponsored goons.”

Deeply hurt by the brutal killing of our young karyakarta, Trilochan Mahato in Balarampur,West Bengal. A young life full of possibilities was brutally taken out under state’s patronage. He was hanged on a tree just because his ideology differed from that of state sponsored goons. pic.twitter.com/nHAEK09n7R

— Amit Shah (@AmitShah) May 30, 2018

NDTV revealed that Mamata Banerjee’s Nephew Abhishek Banerjee alone with Shrishti Dhar Mahato, a senior Trinamool leader from Purulia, alleged that Trilochan was killed because of infighting within the Bajrang Dal and BJP.

Violence In West Bengal

The repeated cases of violence against youths engaged in politics in West Bengal’s Jangalmahal area is a reaffirmation of the fact that the BJP has been successful in carving out a place of itself in the political sphere during the recently-conducted Panchayat elections. It is noteworthy to mention that the area saw Maoist-insurgency in the late 2000’s along with large-scale killing. Additionally, BJP won all seats in the polls, forcing TMC to lose its ground.

The Panchayati polls this year instigated some violent clashes and an alarming death toll.

“So far a total of 24 BJP workers have been killed in poll-related violence. Our party workers are being slapped with false cases,” said BJP state secretary Sayantan Basu.

Condemning the deaths, TMC Rajya Sabha MP, Derek O’Brien Tweeted, “We strongly condemn this despicable killing. All angles must be probed. The perpetrators of this heinous act must be punished. What role did Jharkhand border have to play? What elements of Bajrang Dal, Maoist or BJP involved. Let the truth be found out through proper investigation.”

Since then, he took to Twitter to announce that the case has been handed over to CID.

As swift as swift can be. Case handed over to CID. https://t.co/AQYneh7Nr7

— Derek O'Brien (@derekobrienmp) June 2, 2018

The Logical Indian Take

The state of West Bengal has seen repeated cases of violence inflicted upon youths for their different ideological views. The recently-conducted Panchayat polls have seen the death of both BJP and CPM workers in the state allegedly by TMC workers. Even after two weeks, these killing have raised eyebrows and pointed fingers at the Mamata-led government’s ineffectiveness to tackle such cases.

The Logical Indian condemns the act of violence committed and hope that the state govt takes steps to find the culprits and see that these incidents are never repeated again.

Also published on Medium.