Three persons were arrested on Sunday after a Cockroach Janta Party volunteer’s father died from injuries sustained in an assault in West Bengal’s Bankura district, reported The Hindu.

The political campaign had alleged earlier in the day that Janab Mafik, the father of Shaik Abdul Hafeez, died two days after Bharatiya Janata Party workers attacked him on Thursday.

However, Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari denied that BJP workers were involved in the attack.

He told reporters that a first information report was registered against five persons in connection with the case, reported The Hindu.

“The two others will also be arrested,” Adhikari was quoted as saying. “There is no BJP connection here. They are all criminals. Action will be taken according to law.”

In a video posted on social media on Thursday, Hafeez said he had visited a primary school in Karisunda to conduct a survey as part of the Cockroach Janta Party’s nationwide campaign to improve government schools in villages.

He alleged that BJP workers arrived at his home later that day and demanded that he record a video apologising for highlighting the school’s condition. They also allegedly told him to say that he had conducted the survey under “external influence”, stated the Cockroach Janta Party.

When he refused, the men allegedly attacked him and his family, leaving Mafik with a head injury.

Hafeez’s father died of his injuries on Saturday night, Ratna Singh, the legal affairs head of Cockroach Janta Party, told Scroll on Sunday.

She also alleged that the police had refused to file a complaint in the incident.

On the other hand, a local police official told Scroll on Sunday morning that they had not received a complaint regarding Mafik’s death.

BJP planning violence, alleges CJP

On Sunday, Cockroach Janta Party founder Abhijeet Dipke and co-convener Ashutosh Ranka announced that representatives of the campaign will go to West Bengal to “deliver justice to Abdul’s family”.

“An appeal to all cockroaches of Bengal to reach Indas police station, Bankura district,” Ranka said in a social media post.

In a subsequent post, he claimed that he had received multiple calls “from well-wishers, activists, government insiders, informing that the BJP is planning violence” during the visit.

“Let the world document that when the youth of this country was fighting for education and better schools, BJP was responding with violence,” Ranka said.

Edited by Sara Varghese.

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