Bristy Mukherjee, a 28-year-old resident of Rampurhat in West Bengal’s Birbhum district and niece of Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee, was found dead at her family home on Tuesday. According to local police, Mukherjee reportedly died by suicide following a long battle with depression, which stemmed from the termination of her employment during the state’s high-profile school recruitment scam investigations.
Mukherjee was the daughter of Nihar Mukherjee, a maternal cousin of Mamata Banerjee and a local leader within the Trinamool Congress in Birbhum’s Kusumba village. Her body was recovered from a room on the second floor of the family residence. Local authorities have dispatched the body for a mandatory post-mortem examination to establish the precise cause and circumstances surrounding her death, while procedural inquiries remain underway.
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Family members stated that Mukherjee had been undergoing clinical treatment for severe depression over the past few years. Her mental health reportedly deteriorated significantly after March 2023, when she lost her position as non-teaching staff in a government-aided school. Her employment was among nearly 26,000 teaching and non-teaching appointments invalidated by orders of the Calcutta High Court and later upheld by the Supreme Court.
Mukherjee’s name was listed at position 608 among the candidates whose jobs were revoked after judicial findings revealed widespread corruption, cash-for-jobs arrangements, and nepotism in the selection process conducted by the School Service Commission.
The recruitment scam remains one of the most significant corruption scandals in West Bengal’s recent political history. Investigations into the illegal appointments led to the arrest of former state education minister Partha Chatterjee, alongside multiple ruling party lawmakers and senior education department officials who were subsequently named in law enforcement chargesheets.
Police officials in Kolkata and Birbhum confirmed that further findings will depend on the post-mortem report as the investigation progresses.
