Hours after West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on Tuesday described the death of eight people at Rampurhat as horrific and claimed that the state is in the grip of a culture of violence and lawlessness , Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee requested him to "refrain from making unwarranted statements".

In a letter to Dhankhar, she said his comments are highly unfortunate and unbecoming of a person holding such a dignified constitutional post.

"Your utterances and statements have political overtones which provide support to other political parties to browbeat the government," she wrote in the letter.

Eight persons died in the early hours of Tuesday after their houses caught fire near Rampurhat town in Birbhum district. The incident took place after the alleged murder of a Trinamool Congress panchayat leader.