BJP worker found hanging from tree in Bengal with political message
The body of Trilochan Mahato was found with a message in Bengali on his T-shirt, saying: “18 bachhor bayose BJP rajneeti. Ebar bojh,” which loosely translates to: “BJP politics at the age of 18! Now take this.”
A 21-year-old college student who worked for BJP in the recent panchayat polls was found hanging from a tree, with a political message written on his T-shirt, in West Bengal’s Purulia district on Wednesday, triggering a row between BJP and Trinamool.
The body of Trilochan Mahato, a resident of Supurdi village and second year student at Balarampur College, was found hanging from a tree in Balarampur, with a message in Bengali on his T-shirt, saying: “18 bachhor bayose BJP rajneeti. Ebar bojh,” which loosely translates to: “BJP politics at the age of 18! Now take this.”
A poster, with similar comments, was found near his body.
While the deceased’s father, Hariram Mahato accused six Trinamool Congress workers for the death, police suspect it to be a case of personal vendetta and said the message was intended to mislead.
In his complaint, Hariram said his son worked for BJP during panchayat elections and on polling day, some people had threatened to kill him.
On Tuesday evening, he had got a call from Trilochan, who had gone to Balarampur, saying he had been abducted by a group of men on bikes.
“We could not contact him thereafter. Today (Wednesday) morning, we heard his body was hanging from a tree,” Hariram said.
District superintendent of police, Joy Biswas, however, said the police primarily suspect this to be a murder driven by personal vendetta.
“There was mark of injury on his body. The post mortem report examination will give us a clear idea, but primary it appears to be a case of personal vendetta. Political posters were possibly used to divert our attention,” Biswas said.
BJP chief Amit Shah and local leaders targeted the Trinamool for the death.
In a tweet, Shah said Trilochan was “hanged on a tree just because his ideology differed from that of state sponsored goons”.
“The present TMC govt in West Bengal has surpassed the violent legacy of Communist rule. Entire BJP mourns this tragic loss & stands firmly with Trilochan Mahato’s family in this hour of grief,” Shah said.
BJP national secretary Rahul Sinha accused the Trinamool and said the “murder” took place exactly a day after Mamata Banerjee‘s nephew and Trinamool youth wing president Abhijit Banerjee said at a rally that he would drive the opposition out of Purulia district.
State western region development minister and local Trinamool heavyweight, Shantiram Mahato alleged that it was a fallout of an internal squabble in the BJP.
The death has left local BJP leaders puzzled. “He was not actively into politics. He wrote some graffiti for us and drew some lotus symbols. His association with our party was mostly through some of his friends, who roped him in because of his good handwriting and drawing skills,” said Gopinath Goswami, an RSS leader-turned-BJP member of Purulia zilla parishad.
Goswami recently defeated the outgoing chairperson of Purulia zilla parishad from Balarampur, which is the home turf of western region development minister Shantiram Mahato.
