New Delhi: Former West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s niece Bishti Mukherjee, who allegedly died by suicide at her father’s residence in Birbhum district Tuesday, had been suffering from depression for the past 4-5 years. She was 31.
Bishti was employed as non-teaching staff at a high school in Birpur’s Bolpur area. She was among hundreds of government employees sacked by the West Bengal government in the wake of a 2023 Calcutta High Court order, her family is learnt to have told police.
Bishti’s body was found hanging from a ceiling fan around noon, state police officers told ThePrint. Birbhum Superintendent of Police (SP) Vidit Raj Bhundesh said that the preliminary investigation did not reveal any foul play. “The body has been sent for post-mortem and inquest proceedings are underway. There was no suicide note found near her body,” he told ThePrint.
“The incident took place at the Kusumba village under Rampurhat police station around 12 pm Tuesday. The local police got information about an unnatural death, and the deceased was found to have hung herself from the second-floor balcony of her residence,” another police officer said.
Bishti’s father Nihar Mukherjee is a distant cousin of Mamata’s. “She had been suffering from depression for 4-5 years and had been seeing a doctor. I am in no condition to speak,” he told media persons.
The Calcutta High Court had in March 2023 ordered the cancellation of hundreds of Group C staff appointments in the WBSSC recruitment scam case.
In 2024, the court quashed the entire 2016 selection process, impacting over 25,700 teaching and non-teaching employees in government-aided schools, a big ruling that had put Mamata’s government in the dock. The Supreme Court upheld the order in 2025.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
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