West Bengal Home Secretary Ardhendu Sen said, “Prima facie it (Manna’s death) appears to be suicide, but the matter must be investigated. The family has requested for a magisterial inquest to determine the circumstances leading to the death, and we are looking into it.” Sen said Manna’s involvement in the investigation in the Rizwanur case was very minor.

Police sources said Manna had injuries in his right leg, left eye and throat. His father Ashok Manna said Arindam had left home in Dasnagar, Howrah, around 2 pm Tuesday, saying he was going to work. After his conversation with his mother late in the night, the family rushed to the GRP, Dum Dum, where they were told Arindam had taken two days’ leave. Soon after dawn on Wednesday, the family lodged a ‘missing’ report with the police.

“After the body was found, they asked us to go to Sheoraphuli GRP, and then again to Sreerampur hospital. There, they had almost started the post mortem, treating the body as an unidentified one. We stopped it. All this makes me believe that he was murdered in a planned manner,” Ashok Manna said. Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee said: “I sincerely believed that Rizwanur was murdered. Today the ‘murder’ of the investigating officer of the GRP only proves that my belief was right.”