A BJP leader from West Bengal’s East Medinipur district has been suspiciously found dead during his police custody on Thursday. According to the reports, the 52-year-old Madan Ghorai, who was the vice-president of Pataspur BJP unit, has allegedly died during his police custody in East Midnapore district, West Bengal. The West Bengal police had picked up Ghorai on September 26 in connection with an alleged kidnapping case.
The death of the BJP leader has now stoked massive protests in the state with the party demanding a CBI probe into the suspicious death of their party worker. Meanwhile, the family of the deceased has demanded a fresh autopsy to ascertain the nature of the death of Madan Ghorai.
West Bengal police picked up BJP leader Ghorai without any explaination, family alleges
The family of the BJP leader has alleged that Madan Ghorai was picked up by the Pataspur police a few days back without any explanation. The family said that they had no information about his whereabouts. Later, they were informed that Madan Ghorai died in police custody.
Swapan, the brother of the deceased alleged that police killed his brother in the custody. Demanding stern action against the accused policemen, the brother accused the police of killing Madan Ghorai on the instructions of TMC leaders. “We want justice from the Calcutta High Court,” said Swapan as he broke down.
Alpana, the wife of the deceased said that Patashpur police picked her husband and “beat him mercilessly” in custody before producing him in court the day after.
Meanwhile, the West Bengal police said that the the BJP leader was not in the police custody, but was in judicial custody.
“Madan Ghorai was arrested on September 26. He was produced before the court the next day and was sent to judicial custody at the Contai Correctional Home. On October 9, the Patashpur police station had said that Ghorai was not keeping well and is being transferred to a prison in Kolkata for better treatment,” said a senior police officer.
Calcutta HC orders fresh autopsy of BJP leader’s body
A day after his death, the Calcutta High Court on Friday ordered a fresh post mortem of the body. The High Court order came after the BJP had filed a plea suspecting a foul play behind Madan Ghorai’s death in ‘police custody’.
The division bench of Justice Rajasekhar Mantha at the Calcutta High Court issued directives to carry out fresh autopsy at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital and instructed that it should be video-graphed.
BJP leaders stage-in protest, demands CBI enquiry
However, the BJP leaders in the state have refused to believe the theory put out by West Bengal police and have demanded a CBI probe into the death. Ghorai’s body was also brought to the BJP state headquarters in Kolkata, where party leaders paid their tributes.
The BJP, led by MP and the party’s state general secretary Locket Chatterjee, also staged a protested against the Mamata Banerjee-led government on Friday at the Central Avenue in Kolkata after its members were stopped by the police from conducting a protest march with Ghorai’s body.
Demanding a CBI inquiry, BJP MP Locket Chatterjee said, “Every day the West Bengal police is killing our workers by slapping false cases. We lost another worker and we demand a CBI inquiry into the matter. To save themselves and to suppress the facts, the police are now claiming that he was having some health issues and died due to ailments. This is not true.”
Political violence against BJP continue to rise in West Bengal
The political violence against the BJP workers in the Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal continues to rise as this the fifth incident of death of a BJP member in Bengal in the last few months.
On July 13, 2020, BJP MLA Debendra Nath Roy from Bengal’s North Dinajpur district was found hanging near his house in a closed tea shop in the village of Rajiganj. State BJP president Dilip Ghosh had claimed that he was murdered for political reasons and demanded a high-level inquiry into the matter.
In another incident in June, a BJP worker was found hanging from a tree near his house in Bengal’s East Midnapore district. The BJP leaders had alleged that he was killed by the TMC workers after he had refused to join them. The BJP leader Purnachandra Das was a booth president of BJP in the Ramnagar area of the south Bengal district.
Recently, a BJP worker named Rabin Paul was lynched to death in the Pathar Ghata village in Kalna in West Bengal. During the incident, he was first beaten mercilessly by the TMC supporters and then taken to another place in the village where Paul was thrashed by the TMC Deputy Chief.
On September 13, the body of a BJP worker named Ganesh Roy was found hanging on a tree in Goghat in Hoogly district of the State. Roy was well-known in the area as an active BJP worker. His son has alleged that Roy was murdered by the party workers of the Trinamool Congress. He claimed that they hung his body on the tree after killing him.
Later on October 5, BJP’s former councillor Manish Shukla was gunned down in Titagarh in North 24-Parganas. Manish Shukla was hit by several bullets fired by the attackers who were wearing helmets. A few days later, the West Bengal police had arrested a ‘TMC activist’ for harbouring killers of BJP leader Manish Shukla and had recovered bikes, carbines and pistols.
