Sunil Chandra Roy with his wife, from a family album

Calcutta, Feb. 28: Rajarhat CPM leader Sunil Chandra Roy was found hanging in a Mayapur math today, two days after he had left home.

Roy, the owner four buses, real estate broker and CPM local committee member, checked into Sri Chaitanya Math under a fictitious name on Friday and performed all rituals like a true devotee since then. “Even today, he participated in the early-morning mangal aarati and didn’t appear to be under any stress,” a senior math functionary told police.

Math workers who went to call him for lunch found him hanging. The door was bolted from inside and they had peeped through a window after a few knocks.

To the police, it appeared suicide. “He had used a towel to hang himself. There was no suicide note, but it appears to be a case of suicide,” said an officer of Nabadwip police station.

At the math, Roy, 55, had identified himself as Sudip Das of Garia.

A small phonebook in his trousers had the number of Tapas Chatterjee, chairman of the Rajarhat-Gopalpur municipality, prompting the police to call him.

Chatterjee heard the des-cription of the body and rushed to Mayapur with the CPM’s Rajarhat zonal committee secretary.

Roy’s friends said he had appeared “disturbed” after a meeting on Wednesday night with members of Kalipark Sporting Club, Rajarhat, of which he was the president. Insiders said a section of the members had challenged his authority.

Around 5.30am on Thursday, Roy spoke to daughter Rupanjali about her preparations for the higher secondary exams and left home. He left behind his cellphone, which his family said was very unusual.

“It’s difficult to believe he could do something like this. The death is shrouded in mystery,” a family member said.

Neither the family nor the police know where Roy was between 5.30am on Thursday and 11am on Friday.