West Bengal: BJP MLA's hanging body found in North Dinajpur, CID takes over probe

According to reports, locals found his body hanging from the verandah ceiling of a mobile shop at Balia Deben More area in North Dinajpur's Raiganj and called the police.

BJP leaders alleged that the senior MLA was murdered and then hanged by the ruling TMC men.

West Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh said, "The cold blooded murder of Hemtabad BJP MLA was shocking and unfortunate, and we demand CBI probe as the state government will not do fair enquiry."

"BJP will hold protests against the murder all across the state," Ghosh added.

BJP national president J.P. Nadda wrote on Twitter, "The suspected heinous killing of Debendra Nath Roy, BJP MLA from Hemtabad in West Bengal, is extremely shocking and deplorable."

"This speaks of the Gunda Raj and failure of law and order in the Mamata government. People will not forgive such a government in the future. We strongly condemn this," Nadda added.

Criticizing the Mamata government over the incident, Union Minister Babul Supriyo tweeted: "In 2017, Mamata Banerjee said and I quite 'Democracy is under threat in the country'. What does she has to say now? When hundreds of opposition workers and supporters have been killed by TMC goons."

Demanding proper investigation into the case, West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar tweeted, "Political violence and vendetta @MamataOfficial shows no signs of abating. Death of Debendra Nath Roy, Hemtabad MLA-Uttar Dinajpur District, raises serious issues including allegations of murder. Need for thorough impartial probe to unravel truth and blunt political violence."

Meanwhile, the state police claimed that a suicide note has been recovered from the shirt pocket of the BJP MLA where two persons were named as responsible for his death.

"A suicide note is recovered from the shirt pocket of the deceased. Two persons have been named in the note as responsible for his death," a statement from West Bengal police read.

"All necessary steps of investigation such as use of tracker dog, visit of forensic experts are being taken. Post mortem is yet to be done. People are requested not to jump on speculative, biased and judgmental conclusions and to wait for the investigation to complete," police said.

After the state police released the statement, Governor wrote on Twitter: "Hematabad MLA ‘hanging’-Police stance at top that it is  ‘suicide’ is indicative of cover up- smacks with police prejudice, not without obvious intentions."

"Autopsy  be VIDEOGRAPHED BY EXPERT TEAM AS PER SUPREME COURT DIRECTIVES. Highest TRANSPARENCY be observed @MamataOfficial," Dhankhar added.

According to the latest update, West Bengal Criminal Investigation Department (CID) is going to take over the probe into the unnatural death of the BJP MLA.

Meanwhile, local TMC leaders denied their party's role behind the incident.

Debendra Nath Roy was a CPI-M MLA from Hemtabad and he joined the BJP in 2019.