BJP youth leader found hanging in Kolkata; Amit Shah calls it ‘political murder’, demands CBI probe

Kolkata: Union home minister Amit Shah on Friday said his ministry has sought a report of BJP's youth wing leader Arjun Chowrasia's mysterious death from the West Bengal government.

Visiting the bereaved family members at Cossipore in north Kolkata, minutes after his landing at the city airport, Shah said on behalf of the BJP, they would stand like a rock with the family members and seek judicial intervention for the CBI probe into the death. He said Arjun Chowrasia was a victim of "political murder".

Condemning the killing, Shah also demanded stern punishment of the culprits. Shah said their party would demand the CBI probe into the mysterious death. He said the BJP has approached the Calcutta high court into this case.

BJP's lawyer Priyanka Tibrewal took the victim's mother to the city high court for moving an appeal seeking suspension of postmortem of Arjun Chowrasia, fearing the evidence of the death could be tampered with.

A special task force of Kolkata took away the body against the wishes of the family for postmortem in the government owned R G Kar Hospital in north Kolkata. He said the state administration instead of showing compassion for the family and arresting the "killers" the policemen forcefully took away the body against the wishes of the victim's mother and other family members.

"A day after TMC's first year celebration of the present government, a murder happened and it shows how the state is having a government," Shah said.

He said in the past one year the CBI got a large number of cases following orders from the Calcutta high court, proving that there was no faith in the efficacy of state police to be a fair probe.

Shah said this was a case of murder as Arjun Chowrasia (26) was vice-president of the party Cossipore unit.

The Union home minister said the murder politically motivated to silence the BJP karyakartas. He said it would not cow down the morale of the BJP, which would continue to fight for the restoration of peace and democracy in the state.

Exactly two hours before the arrival of the union home minister at Cossipore in north Kolkata, a special task force of Kolkata Police took away the body of BJP youth wing leader Arjun Chowrasia, denying the bereaved family members' wish to wait until the arrival of the Union home minister.

Before taking the body a four-member forensic expert visited the site and took samples for investigation.

After hours of tug of war between the force and BJP activists, aided by the bereaved family, police finally took away the body of Arjun Chowrasia ( around 1250 hours), who was found hanging in an abandoned Railways quarters at Ghosh Para, Cossipore, early this morning.

Meanwhile, two persons, including a woman, were wounded when the BJP and TMC activists fought pitched battle because of the media and a huge contingent of the police force. When the policemen, including women, were herding then people in a room where the body was kept in polythene pack, a fight between the TMC and BJP ensued outside in which two persons received injury. A youth was seen hitting the woman with a long bamboo fracturing her skull.

Priyanka Tiberewal, who is also a lawyer, alleged that the police forcibly took away the body against the wishes of the bereaved family members. The victim's family, who wanted a CBI probe into the mysterious death, wanted to show dead body of Arjun Chowrasia to Union Home minister Amit Shah.

TMC leader Atin Ghosh also claimed that Arjun Chowrasia was their worker and had actively worked during the civic poll. A host of BJP leaders like Dilip Ghosh, Kalyan Choubey, Nina Purohit, and many other leaders were still at Cossipore anticipating the arrival of Amit Shah.

BJP MP and former state president Dilip Ghosh claimed that Chowrasia was hung after being murdered. BJP's women wing leader Agnimitra Paul demanded a CBI probe into the mysterious death. (UNI)