BJP legislator found dead in north Bengal

Kolkata / Siliguri: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lawmaker Debendra Nath Roy, 65, was found hanging with his hands tied near his house in Uttar Dinajpur,north Bengal,

Kolkata / Siliguri: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lawmaker Debendra Nath Roy, 65, was found hanging with his hands tied near his house in Uttar Dinajpur,north Bengal, on Monday morning. The police said it appeared to be a case of suicide and Roy had left behind a suicide note, but his family members and senior BJP leaders alleged that he had been murdered.

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BJP leaders demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) enquiry and called for a 12-hour shutdown strike in north Bengal districts starting at 6 am on Tuesday. A team of BJP leaders also met governor Jagdeep Dhankhar in Kolkata and sought a CBI inquiry.

“Prima facie it appears to be a case of suicide. The victim has left behind a suicide note in which he has named a few persons. They would be questioned. We are exploring all angles,” said Sumit Kumar, superintendent of police of Uttar Dinajpur.

Roy’s body was found hanging from the ceiling of a shop, more than a kilometre away from his house in Bindole in Hemtabad. While the noose was tied around his neck with one end of the rope, the other end of the rope was tied to his left hand. The suicide note was found in his pocket, police said.

Family members, including the victim’s wife and his nephew, alleged that Roy went out around 1 am on Monday after someone called him. The family could not identify the person who called, but said that he was riding a motorcycle as they had heard the sound. A few hours later his body was found in a market place.

“I have never heard any person committing a suicide with his hands tied. There was no mud on his feet even though it was a kutcha road and it raining yesterday. He went out yesterday after someone called him around 1 am,” said Chadima Roy, the victim’s wife.

Roy had won the assembly elections from Hemtabad in Uttar Dinajpir district in 2016 on a Communist Party of India (Marxist) ticket in 2016 and joined the BJP in 2019.

“Incident has sent shock waves. Have impressed @MamataOfficial for fair investigation. Police Officials cannot be “law unto themselves” or politically motivated. Inappropriate and demeaning treatment of opposition MPs and leaders by police officials will not be countenanced. BJP Sr leaders MP Dilip Ghosh, Rahul Sinha and others called on me and sought CBI investigation of political murder of Hematabad MLA Debendra Nath Roy. Delegation expressed concern at postings of police officials tasked to harass and liquidate opposition leaders,” Dhankhar tweeted.

Not willing to accept the suicide theory put forward by the police, the saffron party’s top leadership including the party president JP Nadda also tagged it as a heinous killing..

“The suspected heinous killing of Debendra Nath Ray, BJP MLA from Hemtabad in West Bengal, is extremely shocking and deplorable. This speaks of the Gunda Raj & failure of law and order in the Mamta govt. People will not forgive such a govt in the future. We strongly condemn this,” Nadda tweeted.

“Roy was murdered. The position in which his body was found hanging clearly suggests that it was preplanned. He was murdered and then the accused persons tried to pass it off as a suicide. The TMC {Trinamool Congress} is involved,” said Rahul Sinha, BJP’s national secretary.

The state government has ordered a probe by the criminal investigation department into the case.

“They have gone mad. They engage in so many encounters in other states that they demand a CBI enquiry even in a normal case. What will the CBI do? The local police solve more cases than the CBI. Whoever joins the BJP suffers from depression,” said Firhad Haki, TMC leader.

Opposition parties including the CPIM and the Congress also demanded an enquiry.

“Even MLAs are not safe in the present regime. Today it was a BJP MLA. Tomorrow it could be from another party. I don’t understand why is the Mamata Banerjee still retaining the post of home minister,” said Abdul Mannan, Congress leader who heads the opposition in the state assembly.

BJP’s state president Dilip Ghosh claimed that more than 100 BJP supporters had been killed in political violence, but most of the cases were still pending and none had been convicted. He said BJP supporters would stage protests outside police stations on July 15 against the legislator’s killing.