A 47-year-old man, in judicial custody after his arrest by the CBI as one of the conspirators of the March 2022 murder of Tapan Kandu, Purulia’s Jhalda Congress councillor, on Sunday complained of chest pain and died soon after.

Satyaban Pramanik, a Group D employee at a high school in Purulia’s Jhalda, would run an eatery jointly with Tapan’s cousin Naren, also an accused.

Police said Pramanik woke up around 5.30am in jail and complained of chest pain. The physician on duty examined him and suggested immediate hospitalisation. Rushed to Purulia Medical College and Hospital, he was declared dead on arrival.

Prima facie, doctors suspected a major cardiac arrest after his blood sugar level plunged.

The body was handed over to the family after an autopsy.

Pramanik’s wife Bimala and son Sourav alleged a conspiracy.

“I last spoke to him last evening for half an hour over the phone. He didn’t tell me of any illness. How can he fall ill and die? It is a conspiracy,” said Bimala.

She alleged that Kandu’s wife Purnima and Purulia’s Congress president Nepal Mahato fabricated charges against her husband.

“My husband was innocent and a petty employee of a government school. He was falsely dragged into the murder. It was a conspiracy between Purnima Kandu and Nepal Mahato,” she said.

Purnima denied the charge.

Nepal Mahato said: “The CBI arrested Satyaban.... We have no role in it.”

Slain Congress leader Tapan Kandu was murdered on March 13 last year while on an evening stroll near his home in Jhalda. His family and party alleged a conspiracy of Trinamul to grab the 12-member civic body.

The CBI in a charge sheet in June last year ruled out any political motive and said the murder was a fallout of a family dispute.