Piyali Mukherjee

A 28-year-old lawyer apparently close to several Trinamul leaders was found hanging in her rented flat in New Town on Tuesday afternoon but there is no word yet from police on what had led to the death.

Piyali Mukherjee, who was a Trinamul student leader in Burdwan, shifted to Calcutta apparently to practise law. Trinamul sources said she was close to several party leaders.

A Trinamul leader said she was a member of the organising committee of Vivekananda Yuva Utsav held by the state government at Salt Lake stadium in January.

Piyali, married to a teacher in Burdwan and mother of a six-year-old girl, lived alone in the eighth-floor flat at Siddha Pines, on the New Town expressway leading to the airport.

A domestic help who got no answer despite ringing the doorbell several times on Tuesday afternoon alerted the building’s caretaker, who contacted the police.

“Our men broke open the door and found the woman hanging,” said an officer of Bidhannagar police. “We cannot divulge anything else about the case,” the officer said when asked whether the lawyer had committed suicide or someone had killer her and hanged the body.

Piyali’s brother Pritam, who came from Burdwan, said she had left behind a suicide note but the police neither confirmed nor denied it.

Piyali, originally from Golapbag in Burdwan, had graduated in law from Burdwan University in 2010 and was an active member of the local unit of Trinamul Chhatra Parishad.

After she had failed to make it to the first list of the law department’s postgraduate entrants in 2011, a Trinamul leader who was in charge of the party’s activities in the district is said to have recommended her name to the authorities for “special consideration”.

“There were 25 names on the waiting list. Piyali's name was fifth. A leader had recommended her name for admission but the authorities turned down the recommendation,” said a Trinamul student leader.

Piyali then got herself admitted to Mohsin College in Hooghly, affiliated to Burdwan University, for the Master’s degree. “But she left halfway through the course and came to Calcutta,” said a source. “She was yet to be empanelled but regularly attended proceedings at the Bankshall and the city sessions courts.”

A case has been registered with airport police station. Till last reports came, her family had not lodged any specific complaint against anyone.