BJP MLA’s death: post mortem report says death caused by hanging, home secretary says probe will be transparent

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Debendra Nath Ray’s death on Monday has led to major political conflict in West Bengal over the past 24 hours.

Ray was found dead in an open varandah outside a shop in a market close to his house at Balia in Raigunj of Uttar Dinajpur district in the morning. While police said that the Hemtabad MLA was found with a suicide note, his family members claimed he was called by someone at around 1 am. The BJP Bengal wing has demanded a probe by the Centre Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

On Tuesday state home secretary Alapan Bandopadhyay said at a press conference that a transparent and fair probe will be conducted. The state government has already handed over the probe to the West Bengal Police’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID). Bandopadhyay said that a suicide note was found on him, which led police to believe that he had died by suicide.

The post mortem report has mentioned the death to be “antemortem” in nature. This means that death was caused by hanging and the injury marks including the marks around the neck were not caused after death. No other injury marks were found on his body. However, a detailed report is awaited. The suicide note has mention of two persons along with their phone numbers, and several persons are being interrogated.

Protests were held in some parts of the state by BJP workers. Another series of protests are scheduled by the BJP tomorrow. Debendra Nath Ray had contested the Hemtabad assembly seat on a CPM ticket (backed by the Congress) in 2016, but had switched to the BJP in 2019 after the Lok Sabha elections.