Kolkata: TMC supremo and former West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s niece Bristi Mukherjee was found hanging at her residence in Birbhum district Tuesday, police said.
The body of Bristi Mukherjee (28), the daughter of Banerjee’s maternal cousin Nihar Mukherjee, was recovered from a room on the second floor of her house at Kusumba village in Rampurhat area this afternoon, a senior officer said.
Nihar Mukherjee had previously served as the Trinamool Congress president of Rampurhat-I block.
“Bristi’s body has been sent for post-mortem examination to the Rampurhat Government Medical College and Hospital. An investigation is underway. The circumstances leading to the death will be established after the post-mortem and other procedural inquiries,” he said.
Family members said Bristi Mukherjee had been suffering from depression and taking medicines for the past few years.
They also said she had been under considerable personal and professional stress.
Mukherjee had lost her Group C job at Bolpur High School following a court order that cancelled recruitments in government-aided schools over alleged irregularities in the selection process during the previous TMC regime, the family members said.
The woman was also going through a divorce proceeding, which had added to her distress in recent months, her family members said.
“Mukherjee was found hanging in a room. A white dhoti was found tied to the ceiling fan, with the other end around her neck,” one of her family members said.
Another relative said, “Bristi used to stay alone in her room and did not talk much with us. None of us saw her outside in the last few days”
The police registered a case of unnatural death and questioned the family members as part of the investigation.
“It could be a case of suicide. An investigation has been launched to ascertain the exact cause of death. No conclusion would be drawn about the circumstances of the death until the post-mortem and other aspects of the probe were completed,” another officer said.