Agartala, Jun 24 (IANS): The opposition CPI-M on Wednesday demanded a judicial inquiry into the four custodial deaths in Tripura which happened over a period of the last eight months.

Opposition leader and former Chief Minister Manik Sarkar in a letter to the Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb said that in violation of the basic human rights since October last year, two youths died in the police stations and another two in jails.

Demanding judicial probe into the four deaths, Sarkar, requested the Chief Minister to provide government job to one family member of each victim and cautioned the police and jail authorities to prevent recurrence of such "unnatural deaths".

Sarkar, Chief Minister for 20 years (1998-2018), led a four-member delegation of the CPI-M MLAs and visited residence of Sajaio Mog, who died in Amarpur jail (in southern Tripura) on June 17, at the Kamalachhari village in Gomati district.

"Sajaio Mog's mother while crying over her young son's custodial death said that he (Sajaio) was the main bread earner of her family. How the family now would survive? Villagers of Kamalachhari have also demanded a high level inquiry into the death and severe punishment to the guilty," Sarkar told Deb, who also holds the home portfolio.

While reviewing the programmes and actions of the law and parliamentary affairs departments on Monday, the Chief Minister asked the police and jail authorities to be more cautious about the deaths in jails and police custody.