A 30-year-old man who was found hanging from an electric tower in West Bengal’s Purulia district on Saturday had committed suicide, doctors at a government hospital said in the autopsy report, NDTV reported. The Bharatiya Janata Party had claimed that Dulal Kumar was a party worker though his mother had said the family supports the Trinamool Congress.

“Five doctors conducted the post-mortem and concluded that Dulal Kumar died of asphyxia ante-mortem by suicidal hanging,” said Purulia district’s newly appointed Superintendent Of Police Aakash Maghariya.

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(Courtesy: ABP Ananda)

BJP workers, however, rejected the autopsy report and called the deaths “political murders”. They called a 12-hour shutdown in Balarampur, where Kumar lived with his family, on Sunday and blocked roads.

Kumar’s death came days after another suspected BJP worker in Balarampur was found hanging from a tree. BJP President Amit Shah accused the ruling Trinamool Congress of murdering 20-year-old Trilochan Mahato. The party has said that the murders are linked to the violent civic body elections in the state last month in which it won 12 of the 20 blocks in the district. Twenty-four people had died in violence during the state’s panchayat elections in May.