In a suicide note, the deceased, identified as Niranjan Baishnab, has purportedly said he was not being able to bear the pressure of police questioning. His family members said Baishnab was mentally harassed by the police.
Kolkata: An eye-witness of the murder of Congress councillor Tapan Kandu in West Bengal’s Purulia district was Wednesday morning found dead at his home. According to preliminary investigation, the eye-witness, a teacher by profession, died by suicide. The police said a suicide note was also found inside his room.
In the suicide note, Niranjan Baishnab, a close aide of Kandu, has purportedly said, “I had never visited a police station and after Tapan’s death, the police kept calling me for questioning. Tapan’s death had already built mental stress, the scene of his death has been coming back to my mind every moment. My mental stress got aggravated by the repeated calls from the police. I have taken the decision on my own and nobody has forced me.”
Meanwhile, his family members said he was mentally tortured by the police. Speaking to the media, his brother said, “The police used to often summon my brother to the police station for questioning and mentally torture him. They also put pressure on him to make a suitable eye-witness statement in order to suppress the facts.”
On March 13, Kandu was shot dead when he had gone out for an evening walk. Baishnab was accompanying him at the time of the murder. Kandu had won from ward number 2 of the Jhalda Municipality for the fourth time in the civic polls held in February. The public mandate led to a hung House after both Trinamool Congress (TMC) and Congress won five seats each and Independent candidates won two. Later, the TMC got support from the Independent candidates and formed the government.
It is also to be noted that Baishnab’s death comes on a day when the Congress held a bandh over Kandu’s murder and also on the TMC forming the civic board.