Suicide not murder says Mamata Banerjee on death of BJP leader

Kolkata, July 16: West Bengal Chief Minister, in a letter to President Ram Nath Kovind said that the BJP may have distorted facts regarding the death of a BJP leader in West Bengal.

The BJP delegation had met with the President seeking the dismissal of the Mamata Banerjee led TMC government over the incident. She said the case has been handed over to the CID for proper investigation.

A Trinamool Congress delegation led by Rajya Sabha MP Derek O'Brien also called on the President at Rashtrapati Bhavan and apprised him of the details of the case.

In the letter, Banerjee cited the preliminary probe by the state police and the postmortem report to claim Debendra Nath Roy's death "is a case of suspected suicide and does not appear to be a political case as being projected by the BJP".

"I am constrained to invite your kind and personal attention to a particular fact. This is in the context of your meeting with a delegation of BJP who might have apprised you with some distorted fact," the letter said.

"On receipt of postmortem report and on primary investigation West Bengal police has reported that it is a case of suspected suicide and could be related to some local money transfer activities. The note found in a pocket of the deceased also names two persons who are allegedly found to be related to such money transfer activities in the locality," it said.

The chief minister said her government took "all necessary action" immediately after the death of Roy, the MLA from Hemtabad in North Dinajpur district, on Monday for a comprehensive investigation.

"I have already handed over the case to the CID for proper investigation," she wrote.

"I would like to assure that West Bengal is a state where we always respect all political parties, their leaders and workers," the TMC supremo added.

On Tuesday, the state CID had detained one of the two people who were named in the alleged suicide note which was recovered from the shirt pocket of the deceased MLA whose body was found hanging from the ceiling outside a closed shop at a market near his home.

Roy's family and party leaders have alleged it was a "cold-blooded murder by Trinamool Congress".

BJP had called a 12-hour bandh in North Bengal on Tuesday to protest the "political murder" and demand a CBI probe.