Congress councillor in Bengal’s Purulia may have been poisoned, indicates post-mortem report

Kolkata, Oct 18
The cause of death of Purnima Kandu, a Congress councillor in Jhalda Municipality in West Bengal's Purulia district, may be poisoning, as per the initial post-mortem report, sources said on Friday.

Her body was recovered under mysterious circumstances at her residence on the night of October 11, the last day of Durga Puja in the state. She was immediately rushed to the health centre at Jhalda where she was declared dead by the doctors.

Sources aware of the development said that the initial post-mortem report of the body has traced the existence of poisonous items in her stomach which could be the reason for her death. However, sources added, the question still remains on whether she had committed suicide by consuming poison or whether anybody else had murdered her by mixing poison with her food.

Kandu was the widow of late Congress councillor Tapan Kandu, who was shot dead by unknown assailants on the road in March 2022. Following her husband's death, she contested and got elected from the same ward. Immediately after her death, her family members, especially Tapan Kadu’s nephew Mithun Kandu, expressed doubts that she might be killed by poisoning. Similar doubt was expressed by the Congress’s district president Nepal Mahato, who claimed that the death seemed to be unnatural since she had not been suffering from any major ailment in the recent period.

A Purulia district police official said that based on the complaints filed by the family members of the deceased councillor, they will start a detailed investigation into the case.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probed the murder of Tapan Kandu. Initially, a special investigation team (SIT) of Purulia police investigated the matter. However, the matter was later handed over to the CBI. A total of seven persons were arrested by the SIT and CBI in the case. The first to be arrested was Tapan Kandu’s own nephew Deepak Kandu. The trial process in the case has already started.

In such a situation, the recovery of Purnima Kandu’s body under mysterious circumstances has created ripples in the political circles of the state.