A Trinamool Congress councillor of Rajpur Sonarpur Municipality south of Kolkata was arrested on Wednesday on charges of abetting the suicide of a local businessman. IANS reported that Biswajit Roy, a trader of South 24 Paragana district, had mentioned Ananta Roy's name in his suicide note and blamed the councillor for forcing him to take his life.

Biswajit Roy had hanged himself on Tuesday. A day before the incident, Ananta Roy had organised an unofficial meeting at a local club and made Biswajit Roy sign a piece of paper that said he would return some money to another businessman, Prasanta Panja, within five months. The councillor had allegedly used the official letterhead of the civic body to issue a notice for the meeting. Municipality Chairman Pallab Das told The Telegraph that the West Bengal Municipal Act does not allow a councillor to use the official letterhead of the civic body to convene a meeting in his personal capacity.

According to The Telegraph, Biswajit Roy had taken a loan of Rs 61,000 from Panja over a period of seven-eight years. Panja too has been arrested. "My husband owed some money to Panja. Ananta Roy repeatedly threatened my husband to repay and forced him to sign a piece of paper," Biswajit Roy's wife told The Hindu.

Roy, who was admitted to hospital after he complained of chest pain on Wednesday night, said he had been framed by local party leaders. Roy's arrest comes eight days after Anindya Chatterjee, another Trinamool councillor from Bidhannagar Municipality, was arrested on charges of extortion. Recently, the West Bengal Police arrested more than 9,000 people involved with real estate syndicates.