Chandranath Rath’s mother demanded life imprisonment for the accused and said that she would demand justice once the new government was formed.
Chandranath Rath, personal aide to BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari, who was shot dead in West Bengal on Wednesday evening, had gone to his home in Medinipur just hours before he was killed, according to his family.
Dev Kumar, Rath’s younger brother, said he sat with his family and talked to them, then left for Kolkata at 2 pm.
Rath’s mother said she had prepared food for him and asked him to come back soon, to which her son replied that he was busy with his upcoming swearing-in ceremony in West Bengal.
Rath was shot dead in an execution-style killing by bike-borne assailants, who followed his white SUV and shot him at close range near Doharia in Madhyamgram in North 24 Parganas.
Read also: Car tail and then execution-style murder: Shocking details in the killing of Suvendu Adhikari’s aide
“He had no enmity with anyone.”
Rath’s younger brother, Dev Kumar, while talking to the media, said that he has no enmity with anyone.
“He was sitting with us yesterday and spoke to us. After two o’clock in the afternoon, he left for Kolkata. He had no enmity with anyone…” Kumar was quoted as saying by ANI news agency.
He added that whoever was behind the murder should receive the “severe punishments.”
Also Read: Chandranath not Suvendu Adhikari’s first PA to die unnaturally: Recall 2013 death of Pradip Jha
“He was busy due to the swearing-in ceremony.”
Rath’s mother also shared the same sentiments with her brother and demanded life imprisonment for the accused and not a death sentence.
She said that she would demand justice as soon as the new government was formed.
“I am a mother who lost her son. I want those behind this to be punished. However, I am a mother too. So, I do not want the criminals to be executed but life imprisonment. I will demand justice for him when the new party comes to power. He came here yesterday, and I cooked food for him. I asked him to go home. He said he was busy due to the oath-taking ceremony..,” she told news agency PTI.
Rath, a close aide of Suvendu Adhikari, was killed on Wednesday night just days before Bengal’s new chief minister was scheduled to be sworn in on May 9. While it is not yet known who the BJP will choose for the top job, Adhikari is among the front-runners for the job.
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In the 2026 West Bengal Assembly elections, the BJP won a landslide victory over the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress. Adhikari himself defeated Mamata from Bhabanipur by more than 15,000 votes.
Rath’s mother Hasirani Rath, who was also associated with the BJP at the local level, accused the TMC of killing her son. She alleged that TMC caused her son’s death because he helped Adhikari in the elections.
“There is definitely a political motive behind it. Suvendu Adhikari loved him like a younger brother, and he loved Suvendu Adhikari like an elder brother. I think the TMC targeted him for his involvement in trying to make Suvendu Adhikari win in Bhabanipur,” she said.
However, just hours after Rath’s murder, Trinamool condemned the murder and called for a detailed investigation by the CBI.
Police and West Bengal CID are investigating the murder.
Nikita Sharma is a senior content producer at Hindustan Times. She is a Delhi-based digital journalist with five years of experience in writing and editing news stories in various fields including crime, politics, technology, trends and much more, both nationally and internationally. At Hindustan Times, she is part of the news team and focuses on breaking news, tracking what’s happening everywhere, and constantly chasing evolving news stories. She has a penchant for covering crime, geopolitics and Indian politics with a keen eye for stories that are often overlooked in the daily news cycle. At Hindustan Times, she has extensively covered several major events including the US Presidential Election, Indian Airlines plane crash, Pahalgam terror attack, Operation Sindoor, US tariff war, among others. As a Delhi enthusiast, she especially enjoys wandering around and writing about the national capital – its heritage, food, art and culture, and the many problems that come with it – pollution, waterlogging, traffic, and more. Nikita holds a bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Mass Communication from GGSIPU and started working as a digital journalist in 2021. During her first assignment, she covered local news in a Delhi-based newsroom, writing and editing stories on conflicts between builders and buyers, civic issues like potholes, waterlogging, lack of facilities in hospitals in Delhi, and paralyzing the city during the peak monsoon season. She has also written articles covering Delhi art galleries, heritage walks, artist profiles, museums, Hindustani classical music concerts and dance performances. She entered mainstream news in 2023 and previously worked at NDTV.Read more
