West Bengal: 21-year-old BJP worker's body found with chilling message
In what serves as a grim reminder of crippling state machinery in West Bengal, a young BJP worker was murdered and his body was found hanging from a tree in Purulia district on Wednesday. On the t-shirt of 21-year-old Trilochan Mahato, an unsigned message was written in Bengali, which credited his allegiance to the saffron party for his death. Amit Shah condemned the killing.
Trilochan had called his brother to rescue him from kidnappers
Trilochan had gone to a place 3km away from his village in Balrampur. On Tuesday night, he called his brother saying he had been kidnapped and pleaded to be rescued. Police searched for Trilochan entire night but in vain. They found his body only after locals informed them. Near Trilochan's hanging body, his new bicycle along with a mobile, wallet and slippers were found.
Trilochan's father names six men who threatened to kill him
Trilochan's father Hari Mahato in his police complaint named six men who had allegedly threatened to kill him after the May 14 panchayat elections. The body was sent for post-mortem and investigation is underway. The panchayat elections were mired in rigging, violence at booths and intimidation of voters. The BJP had credited Trilochan's hard work behind its win in the Balrampur block.
After incident, BJP trains guns at TMC
The message on Trilochan's body loosely translated to "BJP politics at the age of 18! Now take this," making it a case of political vendetta. Assailing the ruling TMC over the incident, Amit Shah tweeted graphic pictures of Trilochan's body. Rahul Sinha, BJP's national secretary, said, "Is it a democracy where a young man is being killed just because he was associated with BJP?"
TMC has surpassed violent Communist legacy, tweets Amit Shah
On the other hand, TMC blames BJP for death
Shrishti Dhar Mahato, a senior TMC leader from Purulia, said Trilochan's death was the result of fighting within BJP ranks. "I want a CID probe into the murder," he demanded. In 2013, with 26 killings, West Bengal had recorded the highest number of political murders in the country. Clashes between different parties are common, especially during elections.
