Trinamul Trade Union Official Found Dead in Jalpaiguri: Police Investigate Potential Trade Union Rivalry

On Saturday night, the corpse of a Trinamul trade union official was discovered in a tea farm in Jalpaiguri, with several marks on it.

Sunil Lohar, a 48-year-old police suspect and the head of the Trinamul Cha Bagan Sramik Union in the Nedam tea plantation in Malbazar, was killed.

Lohar had vanished on Friday. "Friday afternoon was when he was last seen." A tea garden worker named Etowa Munda claimed, "His family members looked for him in vain and then called the police.

On Saturday night, the authorities discovered Lohar's corpse in a thicket close to the New Mal train station.

Workers in tea gardens were upset. When some of them arrived at the Malbazar police station on Sunday morning, they started a protest and fought the officers, demanding that the offenders be taken into custody right once.

On Sunday morning at 10.30 a.m., tea workers blocked NH31C, the route that passes through the town of Malbazar. At about eleven in the morning, the cops broke the roadblock.

"Lohar was well-known across the Malbazar block and a familiar figure in the tea garden. He expressed his concern of an assault to his family members. "Those responsible for his death ought to receive exemplary justice," said Sushil Prasad, the Malbazar block president for Trinamul.

Police are investigating if trade union rivalry had a role in Lohar's demise.

According to an insider, "trade unions of Trinamul and the BJP were trying to gain control of the garden over the past few months, so there was an underlying tension in Nedam tea estate."

While Trinamul officials have remained silent, the majority of the 10 accused in the police case are local politicians and BJP employees.

Jalpaiguri district BJP president Bapi Goswami called it a "fallout" of Trinamul's internal strife.

According to a police officer, "two people, Rohit and Anand Mahali, have been arrested. We're still looking for some others."