Agartala: An indigenous youth leader of the CPM, missing for the past five days, was found hanging from a tree in a forest in Tripura's Gomati district on Tuesday morning.

Ajendra Reang, 27, had left home at Govindabari Kumar ADC village on his motorcycle on April 12 but never returned, sub-divisional police officer (Amarpur) Souvik Dey said. Ajendra's family members received calls from his number from different locations and the caller, who claimed to be Ajendra, said he was in trouble and sought "help".

"We searched several places - at Mungiakami in Khowai district, Jatanbari and Karbook in Gomati district - for him. While calling the deceased's family, he claimed he was in danger and gave these locations," Dey said.

On Tuesday morning, some residents of Brahmaniya Kuyri in Amarpur subdivision, 90km from here, who had ventured into the forest to gather wood, found the body handing from the tree and informed Birganj police station.

Ajendra was the secretary of the South Amarpur local committee of Tribal Youth Federation, under the CPM's youth wing, Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI).

His body has been sent for post-mortem, Dey said.

Ajendra's father Dharmajoy claimed his son was murdered and hanged.

"There are black marks all over his body which come from severe beating. The body was hanged from and tied to the tree. If he committed suicide, who tied him?" he questioned.

The police, however, claimed that Ajendra's death was a case of suicide. "From preliminary investigation, it seems like he committed suicide. However, we can't give details unless the post-mortem report arrives," Dey said.

CPM state secretary Bijan Dhar also alleged that Ajendra's death was a "cold-blooded political murder".

He alleged that CPM supporters were being targeted in a series of political attacks by the BJP and the IPFT, the BJP's ally in the coalition government.

Dhar claimed that earlier this month, the killing of Rakesh Dhar at Shantirbazar was another political murder "veiled" as suicide.

He demanded a "proper inquiry" into the "murders".

The BJP denied any role in the case and said the police would eventually expose the truth. BJP spokesperson Mrinal Kanti Deb said claiming suicides as murders was a "traditional way of the CPM" to politicise everything.

"Recently, Tripura police set up a separate crime branch to solve this crime. We should let the police work independently," he said.