The Bharatiya Janata Party yesterday demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into the mysterious death of West Bengal party legislator Debabarata Nath Roy.
A BJP delegation led by party general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya met Home Minister Amit Shah seeking a CBI inquiry.
In a letter submitted to Shah, the BJP also raised serious questions about the law and order situation in West Bengal, calling it “Jungle Raaj”.
After the meeting, Vijayvargiya told reporters they did not trust any investigation done by the state police.
“We condemn the gruesome incident of death of Debabarata Nath Roy in mysterious circumstances, and we strongly demand a CBI investigation. The state police cannot be trusted to hold an impartial investigation to apprehend the culprits. The records of earlier sham investigations by state police in hundreds of political killings have established this obvious conclusion,” the letter said.
The three-page letter was signed by federal minister Babul Supriyo, co-observer Arvind Menon, MPs Swapan Dasgupta and Raju Bista and Vijayvargiya.
“There is no protection of common people by established law and a ‘jungle raaj’ is prevailing in the state. Common people are helpless in this scenario, when even an elected representative of people is not safe.”
Earlier in the day, a BJP delegation also met President Ram Nath Kovind to make a similar demand.
After the meeting with the president, Vijayvargiya told reporters: “We do not trust any agency of West Bengal. So, the entire case should be investigated by the CBI.”
The body of the BJP MLA was found hanging in West Bengal on Monday.
The state BJP has blamed the ruling Trinamool Congress for the death of Roy, who represents the Hematabad reserved seat in North Dinajpur.
State police recovered a suicide note from his pocket and dubbed it a case of suicide.
West Bengal Home Secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay said prima facie it appeared to be a “case of suicide”.
Addressing a press conference at the state Secretariat Nabanno, Bandopadhyay said the state government would take the probe to its logical end.
He said that the state Criminal Investigation Department (CID) was probing.
“The postmortem suggests death due to hanging. There was no other injury on his body. After preliminary investigation, the state police is assuming it a case of suicide,” he said.
Meanwhile, a 12-hour shutdown was observed in eight northern districts of West Bengal, amid sporadic disruptions by angry BJP supporters.
According to police sources, the BJP activists took out rallies in Malda district and forcibly closed the district head post office.
They also staged a sit-in to disrupt regular transport services in the district.
A group of BJP workers staged protests at the depot of North Bengal State Transport Corp and also blocked the National Highway-34.
Similarly, BJP workers also hit the roads in Cooch Behar district.
Roy joined the BJP in 2019.
Earlier, he was elected on a Communist Party of India-Marxist ticket in 2016.
His family alleged that Roy was ‘murdered’ for his political affiliations and demanded a thorough probe.