Bengal BJP MPs meet Amit Shah; demand CBI probe into deaths of party workers

A delegation of Bengal BJP MPs met Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday demanding a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) inquiry into the recent deaths of party workers in the state.

Coochbehar MP Nishith Pramanik and Bishnupur MP Saumitra Khan alleged role of Bengal's ruling Trinamool Congress party behind the killings of BJP workers and said the police are not taking appropriate actions in the cases.

"BJP workers in Bengal are being murdered and hanged every other day. No case is being filed and they are being termed suicide. Police is working under the TMC government. We demanded a CBI probe into these killings," Saumitra Khan told reporters after the meeting.

READ | 'West Bengal Govt Tarnishing Mukul Roy's Image' Says BJP General Secy Kailash Vijayvargiya

BJP worker found dead

Purnachandra Das, booth president of Ramnagar in East Midnapore district was found hanging near his house in West Bengal on Wednesday. According to a senior BJP leader, TMC has a habit of murdering BJP workers and staging it as suicide. 

As per the family members of Das, local TMC leaders were pressurizing him to join their party for the last few days. However, they claimed that he was killed because he refused to leave BJP. The state district leadership of BJP claimed that TMC goons murdered him and hanged his body from a tree. Terming these allegations as "completely baseless and politically motivated", the ruling party in West Bengal affirmed that the police investigation shall bring out the truth. 

This was days after a BJP MLA's body was found hanging in the North Dinajpur district. Debendra Nath Roy was found hanging in front of a tea shop in Uttar Dinajpur district, close to 1 km from his home.

READ | West Bengal: BJP Accuses TMC Goons Of Murdering Party Worker, Demands Severe Punishment

'Total failure' in handling Coronavirus 

Moreover, the BJP MPs also highlighted the state of affairs in Bengal with regards to the Coronavirus outbreak to Amit Shah and alleged that the Mamata Banerjee-led state government has been a "total failure" in handling the pandemic.

"The healthcare system in Bengal has totally collapsed. In order to save the people of Bengal, we need his (Amit Shah's) direct intervention. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who also holds the health portfolio, is playing with the lives of people in our state," Khan alleged.

West Bengal reported 46 COVID-19 fatalities on Thursday, the highest number of single-day deaths so far, pushing the toll to 1,536, the health department said. The state's caseload shot up to 67,692 with a record 2,434 fresh cases, it said in a bulletin. The number of active cases stood at 19,900. Since Wednesday, 2,140 patients recovered from the disease, improving the discharge rate to 68.33 per cent, the bulletin said. 

READ | New Testing Labs To Help Check Spread Of Coronavirus In UP, Maha, West Bengal: Amit Shah

READ | COVID-19 Death Toll Mounts To 1,536 In West Bengal With 46 More Fatalities