<\/p>\n
West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee wrote to President Ram Nath Kovind on Wednesday saying the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was \u201cdistorting facts\u201d about the death of Debendranath Roy, MLA from Hemtabad in North Dinajpur district who won the reserved seat on a CPI (M) ticket in 2016 before joining the BJP in 2019.<\/p>\n
Hours after her letter, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the state police charged Niloy Singh, an acquaintance of Roy, with murder. Singh was picked up from Malda district on Tuesday and interrogated for hours.<\/p>\n
The 63-year-old legislator\u2019s body was found hanging on Monday morning outside a roadside shop about two kilometers away from his home. He left home around 1 am in the night with an unidentified person. Roy\u2019s family and the BJP have alleged that he was murdered. The BJP has demanded a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)<\/a> and met Kovind on Tuesday. Bengal BJP leaders led agitations outside police stations across the state on Wednesday. <\/p>\n Roy\u2019s body was found hanging outside a mobile phone shop that he used to visit to meet local people, Banerjee said in the letter that was handed to the President by Trinamool Congress (TMC) Rajya Sabha member Derek O\u2019Brien. <\/p>\n \u201cI am constrained to invite your kind and personal attention to a particular fact. This is in context of your meeting with a delegation of BJP who might have apprised with some distorted facts\u201d says the letter\u2019s opening lines.<\/p>\n \u201cOn receipt of post mortem report and on primary investigation West Bengal police has reported that it is a cause of suspected suicide and could be related to some local money transfer activities. The note found in a pocket of the deceased also names two persons who are allegedly found to be related to such money transfer activities in the locality,\u201d Banerjee wrote.<\/p>\n \u201cTherefore, I am sorry to say that it does not appear to be a political case as being projected by BJP,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n She said her government has taken all necessary actions immediately for a comprehensive investigation and has handed over the case to CID for proper investigation.<\/p>\n \u201cI would like to assure that West Bengal is a state where we always respect all political parties, their leaders and workers,\u201d the letter said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe death of one of our compatriots in the West Bengal legislative assembly is very unfortunate. Let his soul rest in peace and let the truth unravel,\u201d Banerjee\u2019s letter said.<\/p>\n The BJP reacted by saying that the letter is proof of the ruling the TMC\u2019s guilty consciousness.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the past, several murders were passed off as suicides by the police in Bengal. In none of those occasions the chief minister felt the urge to rush letters to the President. This proves that dal main kuchh kala hai (something is fishy),\u201d BJP national secretary Rahul Sinha told HT.<\/p>\n Till Wednesday afternoon, state CID officers made no comment on the investigation. Nilay Sinha, one of the two men mentioned in the note found in Roy\u2019s pocket, is being questioned by the police. Roy\u2019s wife told the police that he was trying to get into the rice trade and had taken a huge loan from banks. <\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n