BJP worker’s body found hanging from tree in Bengal’s Hooghly district

BJP alleges TMC workers killed Ganesh Roy; claim his feet were touching the ground, which couldn’t have been the case if he died by suicide

Tension prevailed in Goghat town in West Bengal’s Hooghly district on Sunday morning after the body of a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) worker was found hanging from a tree near the local railway station.

Representational Image (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Relatives of Ganesh Roy, the deceased, alleged that he was murdered by Trinamool Congress (TMC) workers. “Roy was our active worker and he was murdered. If he had died by suicide, the body should have been hanging. Roy’s feet were touching the ground,” alleged Biman Ghosh, BJP’s Arambagh organisation district unit president.

Talking on the condition of anonymity, an officer from Goghat police station said police personnel were stopped from taking the body to the morgue for autopsy. “A crowd created disturbance and blocked the Kamarpukur-Kolkata highway. We had to chase them away,” the officer said.

The body was later taken to Burdwan Medical College for postmortem. Additional police force was deployed at Goghat.

“Killing our workers, leaders and hanging their bodies has become a routine in Bengal. Our legislator from Hemtabad was killed in a similar manner,” said BJP state president Dilip Ghosh. He met governor Jagdeep Dhankhar to complain about law and order situation in the state.

Meanwhile, the criminal investigation department (CID) of the West Bengal Police on Saturday submitted charge sheet in the mysterious death of Debendranath Roy, the BJP legislator from Hemtabad in north Bengal. Roy’s body was found hanging outside a shop on July 13.

The CID has charged two acquaintances of Roy with criminal conspiracy, cheating and abetment to suicide. The accused were arrested after Roy’s death. “We had said Roy was murdered and demanded a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). We will move the Supreme Court with our demand,” Ghosh said in Kolkata while talking about the Goghat incident.

In August, the Calcutta high court turned down the BJP’s petition for CBI probe into the MLA’s death. Subsequently, a Kolkata resident filed a petition in the Supreme Court.