An ailing CPM legislator from Basirhat committed suicide in Kolkata on Sunday. Mostafa Bin Kasem, 69, jumped from the balcony of his fourth-floor MLA Hostel room in Kyd Street around 5pm.
A suicide note recovered said “he was unable to bear the pain of living with such illness,” said Tajmul Hosen, a Forward Bloc legislator, who was among the first to spot the body.
Kasem, four-time MLA and one-time member of Rajya Sabha, had been admitted to the SSKM Hospital with urinary infection on May 26 and released on Saturday. One of his kidneys had been removed a few months ago. The other was damaged as well. He was also suffering from arthritis.
His son and daughter-in-law had come to visit him. “My father jumped when I went out to see my wife off,” said Masum bin Kasem.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee said: “Had I met him and known he was depressed, I would have told him that he would have been provided with all necessary medical attention.”