The BJP is caught in a bind with a party MP demanding a CBI probe into the “suspicious” death of a 37-year-old Bihar worker in Gujarat, a

day after deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi had said the man was killed in a road accident.

Aurangabad MP Sushil Singh has written a letter to Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani, demanding a probe by the central agency into the death of Gaya’s Amarjeet Kumar in Surat last week amid the attacks on labourers from north and central India. Singh alleged that it appeared that efforts were being made to pass off a murder as a road accident.

“… information coming in suggests that efforts are being made to convert this murder case into a road accident case. Hence, I would request that a CBI probe should be carried out in this case to bring the truth to the fore on the basis of which action should be taken against culprits,” reads a rough English translation of Singh’s letter, written in Hindi and a copy of which is with The Telegraph.

Amarjeet, a resident of Kauria village under Konch police station of Gaya district, was employed in a textile factory in Surat since 2003. On the night of October 13, local residents in Surat found him lying on the road and rushed him to hospital. But Amarjeet succumbed to his injuries.

Amarjeet’s family members said they have been suspecting it to be a case of murder from the beginning. The Surat police, however,

have come out with a statement maintaining that the youth was a victim of a road accident.

“We are demanding a probe because of the anti-Bihari violence that broke out in Gujarat,” said Shubham, Amarjeet’s cousin who stays in Kauria village. Amarjeet was father to a son and a daughter and had bought a flat in Surat earlier this year.

The Aurangabad MP’s letter follows Modi’s statement on Sunday that Rupani and Surat MP R.R. Patil, whom he had spoken to, had informed him that the death had been caused by a road accident.

Aurangabad MP Singh, while asserting that his stand should not be construed as a contradiction of Modi’s statement, told The Telegraph on Monday: “I too spoke to the Surat police commissioner and he told me that the death had been caused by a road accident. But the family members of the deceased suspect that he had been murdered. Hence, I wrote a letter to the Gujarat CM and also sent an email to him demanding a CBI probe for a thorough and impartial inquiry into the case.”

Singh visited Kauria village — which falls under the Aurangabad parliamentary constituency — on Monday when the body of the youth was brought from Gujarat.

“I saw the body and found that there was no injury mark on the front side. I directed the local administrative and police officials to click photographs of the body with their official mobile phones so that they can later be used as proof during an investigation in the case,” the BJP MP said.

Deputy chief minister Modi on Monday shared the official media statement issued by Gujarat minister of state for home Pradipsinh Jadeja, in which he had maintained that the youth died in a road accident and was not a victim of any attack on outsiders.

“This person had been living in Surat for the past several years. He sustained serious injuries as he was speeding in his motorcycle which first

hit a tree and then the divider,” read the Gujarat minister’s statement.