Calcutta, June 21: Debu Malik, a Singur villager, has been picked up by the CBI in the Tapasi Malik death case and sent for a lie-detector test.

Asked why he was suspected, CBI superintendent A.K. Sahay said: “We have gone through the TV footage and it appears that on every channel, Debu has been very vocal that Tapasi had committed suicide.

On December 18, last year, 18-year-old Tapasi’s burnt body was found on the land fenced off for the Tata Motors small-car project in Singur.

Tapasi, from Bajemelia in Singur, was part of the Save Farmland Committee that was protesting land acquisition in the area.

This is the first time the CBI has picked up someone in the case.

Debu, 24, was taken to the CBI headquarters in Delhi yesterday.

Sahay said: “Debu claims Tapasi was carrying a can. But we asked a few people whom Debu had spoken of… but they denied having said such things.”

A CBI official said: “We have found Debu was the man in charge of the guards, protecting the boundary wall in Singur at night. So, it is necessary to verify his statements.”