Bengal: Eyewitnesses of Congress councilor Tapan Kandu’s murder found hanging
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- “From the day I saw Tapan’s death, I am under mental stress,” Baishnab wrote in the note.
- The scene of his death is coming in my mind every moment, he wrote in the suicide note.
- Vaishnav’s body was found on a day when Congress had called for a bandh in Jhalda over Kandu’s murder.
An eyewitness to the murder of Congress councilor Tapan Kandu was found dead in West Bengal’s Purulia district on Wednesday morning. He said the body of Kandu’s close aide Niranjan Vaishnab was found hanging from the ceiling at his house in Jhalda’s Baisbapara.
A note purportedly written by teacher Baishnab was recovered from the room where his body was found, a police officer said.
“We have sent the body for post-mortem. We are probing the matter,” he said.
In the note, Baishnab reportedly claimed that he was under severe stress due to repeated calls by the police in connection with Kandu’s murder.
The note said, “From the day I saw Tapan’s death, I am under mental stress. The scene of his death keeps coming to my mind every moment. Repeated calls to the police add to the mental tension.”
“I have never visited any police station in my life. It is becoming unbearable. I have taken this decision myself and no one forced me to take my life,” the statement said.
Vaishnab’s body was found on a day the Congress had called for a 12-hour bandh in Jhalda over Kandu’s murder, and the TMC had formed a civic board in the city.
Following the direction of the Calcutta High Court, the CBI is scheduled to reach Jhalda on Wednesday to take over the murder investigation.
Kandu was shot dead on March 13 when he was out for an evening walk near his residence.
He had won ward number two of Jhalda Municipality for the fourth time in the civic polls held in February and was a popular leader in the area.
The voter’s decision created a hung board in Jhalda Municipality, with the Congress and the Trinamool Congress winning five seats each and independents getting two.
(with inputs from PTI)
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