Ex-Deputy Speaker of Bengal Assembly found dead at home office; suicide note recovered

Kolkata, Aug 16 (IANS) Former Deputy Speaker of the West Bengal Assembly and ex-Trinamool Congress MLA Asish Banerjee was found dead in a room at his Rampurhat residence that served as his party’s office on Sunday.

His body was found hanging in the office, said police, adding that a suicide note was recovered from the spot.

Banerjee was a former Trinamool Congress legislator from Rampurhat Assembly constituency in Birbhum district.

In the one-page handwritten suicide note in Bengali, he wrote that he made a mistake by entering the area of politics and that never in his political career had he got involved in any corrupt activity.

The development has created ripples in the political circles, with questions being raised on why he took such an extreme step.

Questions are being raised on whether he committed suicide due to political pressure or whether there was some other reason behind it.

The police have started investigating the incident, and the body has been sent for post-mortem. The police are trying to verify whether the suicide note was actually written by him.

A five-time Trinamool Congress legislator from Rampurhat Assembly constituency, Ashish Banerjee, was also a member of the previous Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress cabinet in West Bengal, besides being a former deputy speaker of the Assembly.

“I have been involved in politics since my student days. I have never been involved in any corruption. I became the general secretary of the students’ union at Burdwan University. I was not involved in any corruption there either. There have been political arguments. But in the past, those arguments had never taken the shape of hostility. Although I have not always been able to accept all the injustices of the party, I have not been able to protest. I have never taken a single penny in exchange for any work in my entire life,” the suicide note read.

The deceased leader had also claimed that his own party deprived him of all authority within Tarapith-Rampurhat Development Authority (TRDA) and alleged that many things were done to belittle him.

“I had no other responsibility in TRDA except attending the general body meeting. I was not in the tender committee. I did not have the cheque signing authority. I was not even involved in the passing of plans or the issue of a no-objection certificate for any project. No one ever discussed these matters with me. I condemn everything that was done to malign me. Today, it seems that entering politics was a mistake. I advise my sons not to enter politics. They should stay in their respective jobs,” read the suicide note.

In the Assembly elections earlier this year, Asish Banerjee, a teacher by profession, was defeated from Rampurhat by a margin of around 24,000 votes. Since then, he had become almost incommunicado with his party leadership.

–IANS

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