Rampurhat: Former Bengal minister, assembly deputy speaker and five-time Rampurhat Trinamool MLA Asish Banerjee was found dead in a party office adjacent to his home on Sunday morning. The 74-year-old neta’s body was hanging from the ceiling fan and police recovered a one-page purported suicide note in which Asish said he was never involved in corruption and had “not taken a single paisa in his life” as graft. The former MLA purportedly also lamented that entering politics was a mistake.Asish went out for his daily morning walk on Sunday. It was his habit to visit the party office during the walk. However, the family got suspicious as it got past his usual time of return. The door of the party office was locked, which the family found unusual. Birbhum SP Vidit Raj Bhundesh said Asish’s nephew Abhishek alerted Rampurhat police station after family members peeped through the window to find the ex-MLA’s body hanging.Cops broke open two locked doors, brought down the body and registered an unnatural death (UD) case. The SP said prima facie it appeared to be a death by suicide. “No one is responsible for my death,” read the purported suicide note.Since his defeat in the 2026 assembly polls, Asish, a former professor of Bengali at Rampurhat College, had largely stayed away from politics, except attending a rebel Trinamool camp meeting on June 22. Banerjee had been a member of Trinamool since its formation in 1998.“I have never been involved in any corruption. Never in my life have I taken a single paisa,” the note read. It referred to Tarapith Rampurhat Development Authority (TRDA), of which Asish had been the chairperson since 2015. “Other than attending the TRDA general meeting, I had no responsibility. I was not on the tender committee, I did not have the authority to sign cheques, I did not have the authority to issue plan sanctions or give no-objection certificates,” the note mentioned. TRDA has been under investigation since May 4 for alleged financial irregularities and illegal approval of hotels.In the note, Asish lamented, “Entering politics feels like a mistake. I advise those close to me never to take up politics.” Recalling his academic career, he wrote, “Taught for free upon students’ request. Received a lot of love from them.”CM Suvendu Adhikari dialled Asish’s wife Sushmita and his elder brother Prashanta. CM has urged police to examine Asish’s mobile call records to determine whether “corrupt individuals from the TMC” had been threatening him.“It was so unfortunate. I spoke to his family… He was a decent politician. After defeating him in the election, BJP MLA Dhruba Saha went to meet him and touched his feet. His family told me that he shared a good rapport with local BJP workers and the police,” CM told reporters.“After Mamata Banerjee lost the election, she formed a committee, and he immediately resigned from it… Police will certainly take action. I will meet his family because I share a good bond with them,” he said, adding, “The handwritten suicide note on his letterhead pad will be investigated. The handwriting will be examined.”Saying she was deeply disturbed by the death, TMC chief Mamata Banerjee wrote on X: “The harassment and mental pressure he faced, despite his long record of public service, should make all of us pause and reflect on the human cost of relentless political hostility.”“What makes this tragedy even more painful is the immense mental and emotional strain he appears to have endured in his final days. Despite the work he did, he was repeatedly maligned, falsely accused and subjected to relentless pressure,” she added.Speaking to the media, the 84-year-old Prashanta said, “We sat and spoke till midnight yesterday. He came to see me off and closed the door after me… I can’t believe it.”An inconsolable Abhishek told reporters, “We have nothing to do with politics. Please spare us. We are not into politics… will never take it up. This loss is unbearable.”Saying that Asish had hoisted the national flag on Saturday, a local said, “He was going through a lot. Many people were humiliating him.”Rampurhat MLA Dhruba described Asish’s suicide as “a tragic and deeply painful incident.”“I can’t believe he took this extreme step… I met him only a few days back. The people of Rampurhat and Birbhum want the truth. There should be an investigation into why a five-time MLA did such a thing and that too at this age. If necessary, an investigation should be conducted by another agency,” Dhruba said.TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said, “The mysterious death is being called a suicide, and a suicide note has allegedly been found too, yet… this calls for an impartial investigation.” Kunal went on to allege that BJP’s “tendency of smearing, stigmatising, and socially ostracising people” contributed to the tragedy.
