A Trinamool Congress leader has been arrested after the death of a school headmaster, reportedly by suicide, in West Bengal’s Murshidabad district, according to The Indian Express.

Ujjal Singha Ray, headmaster at Raninagar Sheikhpara Babultali Khalilur Rahman High School in Domkal in the district, was believed to have died by suicide on Wednesday.

Unidentified police officers told the newspaper that Ainul Haque, a Trinamool Congress panchayat samiti member, had allegedly threatened to frame Ujjwal Singha Ray in a corruption case and demanded Rs 35 lakh from him.

Haque is also chairperson of the management committee at the school.

The Trinamool Congress leader was arrested on Friday based on a complaint filed by Ujjwal Singha Ray’s wife, Polly Singha Ray, The Telegraph reported. In her complaint, Polly Singha Ray alleged that her husband could not bear the stress after Haque’s threats and took his own life.

“The TMC leader and his associates are trying to introduce corrupt practices in the school,” The Indian Express quoted her as saying in the complaint. “My husband opposed that.”

She added that Haque and his associates threatened the headmaster, saying that he would be framed for corruption in the mid-day meal scheme and demanded Rs 35 lakh from him. “Following that, he struggled to carry on with the humiliation and died by suicide,” the complaint said.

Haque, however, denied having threatened the headmaster.

“I am also a former student of the school, and he was my teacher,” the newspaper quoted the Trinamool Congress leader as saying before his arrest on Friday. “Why should I threaten him? These are all false allegations.”

Haque, along with three others, was booked for abetment of suicide and criminal intimidation, among others, police officers told The Indian Express.

An additional chief judicial magistrate in Lalbagh remanded Haque to police custody for seven days.

Opposition parties criticised the ruling Trinamool Congress government following the alleged suicide.

“The teacher could not tolerate the humiliation… It’s an institutional murder,” The Indian Express quoted Communist Party of India (Marxist) Md Salim as saying. “What has [Chief Minister] Mamata Banerjee made this state? Thieves are roaming freely, and such honest teachers are dying by suicide.”

Salim added that his party will provide legal help to the headmaster’s family.

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