• Abhijit Nath, NET Correspondent, Tripura 

Agartala, February 11, 2022 : A 48-year old Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) supporter Benu Biswas was allegedly killed by ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) supporters on the late evening of Thursday last at Kamalpur village in Tripura’s Rajnagar RD Block under south district.

It is reported that four to five persons alleged to be supporters of ruling saffron party in Tripura had killed Benu Biswas, when he was proceeding towards home from market.

The nephew of the deceased alleged “My uncle Benu Biswas was returning home on his bicycle from market in the late evening of yesterday and at that time, some ruling party supporters allegedly attacked him. Hearing the scream of my uncle, I rushed to the spot and found Joydeb Sarkar and Mithan Karmakar with bamboo sticks while the rest fled from the spot”.

Following the murder of a CPIM supporter by the alleged ruling BJP supporters at Kamalpur under Belonia sub-division, villagers on Friday morning staged a road blockade demanding immediate arrest of the accused persons involved in this killing.

The villagers said “We want immediate arrest of the culprit. A case has been registered with the PR Bari police station against Jhutan Chakraborty, Naresh Chakraborty, Joydeb Sarkar and Manik Lal Sarkar. Few local mafias from ruling BJP threatened us to lift our blockade or else, dire consequences shall be faced by us”.

Meanwhile, Tripura CPI-M secretary and former MP Jitendra Chowdhury, MLAs Sudhan Das and Ratan Bhowmik visited the residence of the deceased on Friday morning when the body reached his home.

Speaking to reporters, Jitendra said “This is the 23rd murder of our party worker after the formation of BJP-led government in this state. Demanding arrest of the accused persons involved in this murder, the villagers protested by blocking the road since this morning.”

He claimed “Benu Biswas was good person, but his fault was that he was a supporter of opposition party i.e. CPI-M. Several times, Benu’s family members were attacked. BJP goons had attacked many other people for not supporting the saffron party in the recent past,” alleged CPI-M state secretary.

In Agartala, CPI-M West Tripura district committee held a procession blaming the heinous activities of the ruling BJP in different parts of the state.

Reacting to this barbaric role of alleged BJP supporters in the late evening of Thursday last, CPIM West Tripura district secretary and former MLA Ratan Das alleged that the ruling saffron party supporters had attacked Benu Biswas yesterday evening mercilessly and beaten to death on spot. “In this regard, we are demanding immediate arrest of the culprits”, he added.

Being asked about the incident, Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) of the South Tripura district Rajib Sengupta said “Police have registered a case of unnatural death and investigation is going on. Nothing else can be said now”.