A Trinamool Congress councillor from South Dum Dum Municipality in West Bengal was found dead at his home on Saturday morning, with police suspecting it to be a case of suicide. The deceased was identified as 49-year-old Sanjay Das, councillor of Ward No. 18 and chairman-in-council (health) of the South Dum Dum Municipality.
According to police, Das was found hanging inside his flat in a multi-storey building on Gorakshabasi Road near Nagerbazar, where he lived with his wife, teenage son and six-year-old daughter. His son reportedly spotted him and alerted family members.
Police said he was taken to a nearby private hospital around 8.18 am, where doctors declared him dead on arrival.
Officials said an unnatural death case has been registered and further investigation is underway. No suicide note has been recovered so far.
Family members and local residents claimed that Das had been under severe mental stress in recent days after banners accusing him of land grabbing and extortion appeared outside his residence.
The incident comes amid ongoing investigations into alleged civic corruption and extortion cases involving several Trinamool leaders and councillors in West Bengal.
Das was considered close to Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation MMIC Debraj Chakraborty, whose associates have recently come under scrutiny following arrests in the municipal recruitment scam.
Trinamool spokesperson Kunal Ghosh claimed that Das was allegedly being mentally harassed and blackmailed.
“Some banners had come up in the area accusing him of being an extortionist and being involved in scams. Two persons who were mentioned as having been cheated said the claims were false. But some people were pestering and blackmailing him to pay up or they would go to police and send him to jail. This had left him and his family jittery,” Ghosh said.
He further said Das had tried to resist the alleged blackmail.
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