West Bengal: Nearly One Month After 20-Year-Old BJP Worker’s Killing, First Arrest Made In The Case
Nearly a month after the murder of 20-year-old Bharatiya Janata Party worker Trilochan Mahato, whose body was found hanging from a tree in West Bengal's Purulia, the first arrest has been made in the case, Hindustan Times has reported.
A 45-year-old man named Punjabi Mahato was arrested by the Criminal Investigation Department of the West Bengal police earlier today, just days ahead of BJP President Amit Shah's visit to the state. Shah is likely to come to West Bengal on 27 June and visit Purulia, where the party had done well against the Trinamool Congress in the recent Panchayat elections, the following day.
The accused, who is a resident of the same village as the victim, was not named as a suspect by Trilochan Mahato’s father in his police complaint.
This development also comes just days before the Calcutta High Court is set to hear a plea filed by Trilochan Mahato’s family seeking a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation. The family has claimed that their son was murdered by TMC goons for “political reasons”, demanding a "free and fair probe".
Trilochan Mahato was found hanging by a nylon rope on 30 May.
On the front and back of his shirt was a message - “You deserve to die for doing politics and working for BJP at this young age”. Near the boy’s body was a poster, which read - “You have been working for BJP at this age. We have been trying to kill you since elections and today we killed you.”
Three days after his killing, 35-year-old Dulal Kumar, a BJP worker, was found hanging from a power transmission tower in the same district.
The killings were reported just days after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee said that he would make Purulia opposition free.