TMC leader held in Bengal for 'abetting' businessman's suicide

A councillor of West Bengal's ruling Trinamool Congress was on Wednesday arrested for abetting the suicide of a local businessman over debt in South 24 Parganas district, police said.

Ananta Roy, a member of the Rajpur-Sonarpur Municipality on the city's southern fringe, was arrested after a complaint against him that he repeatedly threatened Biswajit Roy.

Biswajit (38), who hanged himself on Tuesday, in his four-page suicide note named the Trinamool leader for driving him to take the extreme step.

"My husband owed some money to a businessman named Prasanta Panja. Ananta Roy repeatedly threatened my husband to repay. On Tuesday, he (Ananta) organised a meeting at a local club over the dues and forced Biswajit to sign a piece of paper stating that he will give money to Panja," said the victim's wife.

Ananta Roy's arrest comes eight days after Anindya Chatterjee, another Trinamool leader and councillor of the Bidhannagar municipality, was arrested on the charge of extortion.

Following Trinamool supremo and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's cracking of the whip on illegal syndicates, the police has arrested extortionists and criminals across the state.

--IANS

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