Social distancing went for a toss in the West Bengal village of Baliyadighi after local MLA from BJP, Debendra Nath Ray was found hanging outside his home.
People swarmed in numbers - all social distancing rules forgotten - to catch a glimpse of the corpse, even as police personnel tries moving the crowd away. However, the West Bengal unit of the BJP has alleged that Ray was murdered and hanged outside his home. The body has been taken for post mortem. No FIR has been filed as yet.
According to people in the village, Ray was called outside his house by people who were on motorcycles. Later, Ray was taken to a near-by tea stall. It is not clear what happened thereafter, whether there was an altercation before the BJP MLA was found hanging near the tea stall. BJP unit believes that Ray was first killed before he was hung. Ray was a CPIM MLA in 2016 and joined BJP in 2019. The exact motive is yet to be ascertained, but his family members claim it was a personal enmity.
“People killed him, he was found hanging. There was enmity, he was called at 1:30am from the house. He was at home. I think he was killed. We don’t know who called him. We want the perpetrators to be hung. He was called before, but this time they killed him.” Said Prati Burman, Ray’s daughter in law.
“He was here at night at the tea stall. He had come to take his signature after which he went home. After that around 1:00am, a mototcycle went past the house, everyone was asleep. He told my aunt, he will be back. But he did not come back all night. Then I came here and saw this horrific sight. I think miscreants killed and hung him. He was a running MLA. We want a CBI enquiry.” Said Jitesh Chandra Rai, Ray’s nephew. There is no clarity whether any political party was involved in the murder.
