Blaming Trinamul for the “cold-blooded murder” of BJP MLA Debendra Nath Roy, the saffron party called a 12-hour bandh in north Bengal on Tuesday and sought a CBI probe into the death.

Roy was found hanging at Baliadighi village in the Hemtabad block of North Dinajpur on Monday morning.

“Our national leadership has demanded a CBI probe before the home minister. They have sought an appointment from the President’s office seeking his intervention,” said BJP state chief Dilip Ghosh.

Ghosh urged the people of north Bengal to observe a 12-hour bandh on Tuesday to protest the death of Roy, a legislator from Hemtabad who won the 2016 Assembly polls on CPM ticket but switched over to the BJP last year.

The BJP claimed “105 party workers, including Roy”, died in Bengal because of “Trinamul atrocities”.

J.P. Nadda, the BJP’s national president, and B.L. Santosh, national general secretary (organisation), took to Twitter to condemn Roy’s alleged murder. Debasree Chaudhari, BJP MP from Raiganj and junior Union minister, visited Roy’s village with three MPs, Saumitra Khan, Khagen Murmu and Sukanta Majumdar. Trinamul has dismissed the BJP’s allegations of vendetta politics.

Ghosh led a silent rally from state BJP headquarters in Calcutta, with leaders such as Sayantan Basu, Rahul Sinha and Arjun Singh. He also led a delegation to meet governor Jagdeep Dhankar in this matter.

Mukul Roy, a turncoat from Trinamul, however, asked for a judicial inquiry. “A CBI probe is easy to demand, but a lot of legalities are involved,” he said.

The Trinamul said the BJP was involved in “petty politics over a dead body”. “Our state police have solved more cases than the CBI. They should be allowed to carry on with the probe.”

CPIM politburo member Mohammad Salim said that the likes of Roy switched camps for personal gain and security, but the incident was proof that nobody was safe in Bengal.