Rath was shot dead in North 24 Parganas on Wednesday night, triggering a fresh political confrontation between the BJP and the ruling Trinamool Congress. BJP leaders alleged that the murder was politically motivated and demanded an impartial investigation, while the Trinamool accused the opposition of trying to derive political mileage from the incident.
Also read: BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari’s personal assistant shot dead
The latest killing has also revived discussion around three earlier deaths involving individuals who were part of Adhikari’s close circle, including personal aides and security personnel. Though no investigative agency has publicly established a direct connection between the incidents, the cases continue to surface in Bengal’s political discourse because of the recurring pattern of controversial or unexplained deaths.
The first shadows
The earliest case dates back to 2013, when Pradip Jha, who worked as Adhikari’s personal assistant during his years in the Trinamool Congress, died in Purba Medinipur under circumstances that drew attention, according to local media reports.
However, the incident did not snowball into a wider political controversy at the time, and investigators did not publicly indicate any criminal conspiracy.
Five years later, in 2018, Subhabrata Chakraborty, a State Armed Police constable posted as Adhikari’s personal security officer, was found dead at a police barrack in Kanthi in Purba Medinipur district. Police initially treated the case as suicide, stating that Chakraborty had allegedly used his service revolver to shoot himself.
Also read: Suvendu Adhikari aide murder probe intensifies; CID takes over, no arrests yet
Cases that returned
The matter resurfaced in 2021 after Chakraborty’s wife sought a fresh investigation and raised questions over the circumstances surrounding his death. The West Bengal CID later reopened the probe, reconstructed the scene and questioned police personnel associated with the original inquiry. The renewed investigation soon became part of a political slugfest between the BJP and the Trinamool, with both parties accusing each other of politicising the case.
In the same year, another of Adhikari’s aides, Pulak Lahiri, reportedly died under unusual circumstances. No conclusive findings suggesting criminal conspiracy in that case have been made public.
Now, with Rath’s killing, the focus has once again shifted to the string of deaths involving people closely associated with Adhikari, one of the BJP’s most prominent faces in Bengal politics and the leader who also defeated outgoing Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in the 2021 assembly election from Nandigram.
