Kolkata: The post-mortem report of deceased Bharatiya Janata Party Yuva Morcha (BJPYM) worker Arjun Chowrasia — who was found hanging inside an abandoned building in Kolkata last week — mentions death by hanging as possible cause of death, but makes no reference to suicide, ThePrint has learnt.
The seven-page post mortem report submitted before the Calcutta High Court Tuesday and accessed by ThePrint, states the “cause of death best to our knowledge and belief is hanging”. The report adds, however, that there was the mark of a ligature injury on the neck of the deceased “ante-mortem” or before death. According to the report, doctors conducting the post mortem examination have also found 10 ml of “foul-smelling, dark fluid” in the stomach of the deceased, which has been sent for a toxicology test.
ThePrint reached Kolkata Police Deputy Commissioner (North and North Suburban Division), Joyeeta Bose,on phone, but she refused to comment because the “matter is subjudice”. ThePrint also reached Rabin Haldar, officer in-charge Cossipur Police Station — where Chowrasia’s death report was filed — on phone, but he said the details regarding the post-mortem have been submitted in court and he has no additional information to share.
The case will come up for hearing in Calcutta High Court on 19 May.
The discovery of Chowrasia’s body, hours before Union Home Minister and senior BJP leader Amit Shah’s scheduled visit to Kolkata on 5 May, started a political slugfest in West Bengal, with the BJP branding it a case of “political murder”, while the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress, the ruling party in West Bengal, slamming the BJP for playing politics over the dead.
The post-mortem of the 27-year-old’s body was carried out at the Army Command Hospital in Kolkata Saturday, under a Calcutta High Court order, by a team comprising doctors from AIIMS Kalyani and the state government’s R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital.
The procedure was conducted amidst tight security and videographed in the presence of a judicial magistrate.
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‘Political murder’ vs ‘politics over dead’
On his maiden visit to West Bengal since the BJP’s loss in last year’s assembly elections in the state, Shah altered his schedule to to visit Chowrasia’s family in North Kolkata’s Cossipore. The deceased was reportedly to have led a bike rally during Shah’s Kolkata visit.
Claiming Chowrasia’s death to be a case of “political murder”, Shah pushed for a CBI probe into the case. The Union Home Minister had also sought a report on the death from the West Bengal Government.
The BJP also led a delegation of 57 families — alleged victims of last year’s “post-poll violence” in the state and Chowrasia’s family — to the Kolkata’s Raj Bhavan Tuesday, seeking West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankar’s intervention in ensuring ex-gratia payment and government jobs, as compensation for them. In a memorandum submitted to the governor, the BJP warned of an indefinite hunger-strike demonstration, if the West Bengal government didn’t act on its demands. Both the cases of last year’s alleged post-poll violence in the state and Chowrasia’s death are subjudice.
Speaking of Chowrasia’s death outside the Calcutta High Court Tuesday, BJP leader and petitioner in the case, Priyanka Tebriwal claimed, “Circumstantial evidence suggests this cannot be a case of suicide. We are waiting for the viscera report and then the picture will be clear if he was fed something and then hung.”
The deceased’s mother, Laxmi Chowrasia, while speaking to the media at the same time, had demanded a CBI probe into her son’s death.
“We will cooperate with the police, they asked for my brother’s mobile password and e-mail password. But we don’t know anything about his passwords and the same has been communicated to the police. We will join the investigation; we want to know how my brother died,” Arjun’s brother Amit Chowrasia, told the media Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the Trinamool Congress has slammed the BJP for “playing politics with dead body”.
West Bengal Minister of Urban Development and Municipal Affairs and senior Trinamool leader, Firhad Hakim, told reporters Tuesday, “Those who think playing politics over the dead will increase their political TRP, their mindset will remain the same.”
He alleged: “Amit Shah, whose hands are already covered in blood from the Gujarat riots (a reference to the 2002 riots, when Shah was Home Minister of Gujarat) comes running, is playing politics.”
The Trinamool Tuesday also sought an apology from the Home Minister, for preempting “political murder” in the BJP worker’s death case.
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)
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