West Bengal BJP MLA Debendra Nath Ray was found hanging near his home in Hemtabad area of North Dinajpur district on Monday morning, police sources said.
The market where Ray was found hanging is about one kilometre away from his home.
According to the deceased’s family, the BJP MLA was murdered and then hanged. However, police said the cause of death will be ascertained after post-mortem.
The body has been sent to a hospital in Raiganj for post-mortem.
BJP President JP Nadda in a tweet said, “The suspected heinous killing of Debendra Nath Ray, BJP MLA from Hemtabad in West Bengal, is extremely shocking and deplorable. This speaks of the Gunda Raj & failure of law and order in the Mamta govt. People will not forgive such a govt in the future. We strongly condemn this.”
BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya said, “It is a condemnable and cowardly act. During the rule of Mamata Banerjee, the killings of BJP leaders have become the order of the day. Debendra Nath Ray, MLA from Hemtabad was killed. His body was found hanging. Was joining BJP his only crime?” Vijayvargiya tweeted.
Roy had contested and won the 2016 Assembly polls on a CPM ticket but had joined the BJP last year.
