Debendra Nath Roy

West Bengal CID on Wednesday arrested one person in connection with the death of Bengal MLA Debendra Nath Roy who was found hanging near his residence in North Dinajpur district on Monday. Nilay Sinha was produced at a Raiganj court, which sent him to 10-day police custody.

Meanwhile, BJP workers protested outside police stations across the state Wednesday, demanding a CBI inquiry into the death.

According to a state government official, Sinha was named in the purported suicide note that was recovered from the shirt pocket of the 55-year-old Hemtabad MLA. The local police had picked him up from English Bazar area of Malda on Tuesday. Later, he was handed over to the CID, which formally arrested him Wednesday.

The CID is on a lookout for Mahbud Ali, another person who was named in the suicide note.

A police officer said, “We have started questioning Sinha. Soon, we will be able to track down the other person.”

Roy had won the 2016 state Assembly polls from Hemtabad on a CPM ticket, but joined the BJP soon after the Lok Sabha elections in 2019. After his death, his family members and BJP leaders alleged that it was a “cold-blooded murder by the TMC”.

However, the ruling party denied the charge and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said it was suspected to be a case of suicide.

State BJP president Dilip Ghosh alleged that political violence and murders were on the rise under the TMC rule.

“If our leaders are killed, then it is termed as suicide. If their leaders are killed in infighting, then BJP workers are accused of murder. This has become the new normal in West Bengal under the TMC rule. We are democratically fighting to bring about a change and it will culminate in the 2021 Assembly polls in the state,” said Ghosh.

On Wednesday, BJP workers protested outside police stations in Kolkata, Bidhannagar and other parts of the state, and the BJP leaders submitted memorandums to the officers-in-charge demanding a CBI inquiry into Roy’s death.

BJP MP Soumitra Khan went to the Kolkata police headquarters to submit a memorandum to the commissioner. As the main gates were closed, Khan handed it over to an officer posted there.

BJP leader Sayantan Basu took out a protest rally before the Bidhannagar police commissionerate. State party vice-president Joy Prakash Majumdar and Sabyasachi Dutta, a former TMC mayor of Bidhannagar who had joined the BJP last year, also took part in it.