IT IS one of the strangest and a tragic incident involving a politician in West Bengal in recent memory. A leader of the Socialist Unity Centre India (SUCI) accused the party leadership of "corruption and immorality" and said he would end his life and the general secretary of the party would be responsible. He was last seen on Sunday and was found dead in a hotel in Puri resort on Wednesday (April 9) night.

 

Bidhan Chatterjee a senior member of the state committee of the SUCI wrote a scathing letter to the party’s secretary Pravas Ghosh alleging that the top leadership of the party was "corrupt and many were into illicit relationships with women." The letter went on to allege that the leadership of the SUCI that was supposed to work for the downtrodden was hobnobbing with the rich. There were a series of allegation on how funds were being siphoned off, how a handful of party leaders were leading an ostentatious life and having extra marital affairs.

 

Copes of the letter sent by speed post reached print media offices and television channels. The letter said he was going to commit suicide and the responsibility would be solely that of Ghosh, the party secretary. The letter was undated and reached the party headquarters on Lenin Sarani on Tuesday night. The five-page letter, four of which were typed on a computer and one was hand-written said "A section of the state committee members has been protesting the corruption in the party but the leaders could not care. So, I have decided to end my life and the state secretary will be responsible," the media quoted the letter as saying.

 

Chatterjee’s body was found hanging in a guesthouse cum hotel in Puri and was identified by a member of the party in Orissa.  The body has been sent for post mortem. No suicide note was found.

 

Ghosh, the party secretary told the media that this was a massive conspiracy to malign the party before the panchayat polls in May. The SUCI has a pre-poll electoral understanding with Trinamool Congress. He said it might not be suicide but murder. He doubted how a person could post so many letters by speed post on the same day. He also hinted that action had been taken against Chatterjee earlier and that he may have been motivated by people with vested interests to write the letter. "There is more to it than meets the eye," he told reporters. The SUCI leadership also hinted that he could have been abducted and murdered.

 

Ironically, an embarrassed SUCI leadership is now trying to downplay Chatterjee’s role in the party saying that he was not such an important leader when the fact remains that he was a senior leader with a lot of responsibilities vested on him. He was also well respected by fellow leftists like those in the CPI (M) who were into student politics with him like the Marxist spokesman Shyamal Chakraborty.

 

Legal experts were of the opinion that if the allegations made by Chatterjee against the party leadership, where he has mentioned specific names and detailed their activities, were found to be true and since he has made the party leadership responsible for his death an FIR could be lodged and arrests made.