The body of North Barrackpore Municipality vice-chairperson Satyajit Bandopadhyay, 69, was found by his son on Saturday afternoon in the garret of a rented house at Ichhapur in North 24-Parganas.

The body was found hanging from a rope inside the small rooftop room of the rented house, where Bandopadhyay, his wife, son and daughter had shifted because of maintenance work at his residence.

A three-page letter allegedly written by Bandopadhyay, addressed to his family, was found in the room, indicating he had committed suicide. A police officer said they were checking the authenticity of the letter.

Family sources said Bandopadhyay was compelled to end his life under pressure from associates who were blackmailing him with a video. Police and TMC sources did not rule out the involvement of a woman.

Police sources said Bandopadhyay, in the letter, accused four persons of blackmail.

Bandopadhyay represented ward 8 and had been a Trinamool councillor for around eight years. He had been allegedly missing for over 24 hours before his body was found. His family lodged a missing complaint at Noapara police station on Friday night, leading to the investigation.

Bandopadhyay's son Sarthak told the police that his father had left home around 5am on Friday and his phone was unreachable. The family lodged a missing complaint with the police on Friday night.

Around 1am on Saturday, Sarthak called the police to inform his father's body was found hanging. The police reached the rented house and brought down the body.

A police officer said the family had been told that the last location of Bandopadhyay's phone was the rented house, but family members claimed that they were unaware when he returned home. "This is very unusual," the cop added.

The body was sent for a post-mortem.

North Barrackpore municipality chairperson Malay Ghosh said he met Bandopadhyay on Thursday afternoon and didn't discern anything unusual.

Bhatpara arrest

One Sujan Paswan was on Saturday arrested in connection with the Wednesday murder of Trinamool's former Bhatpara ward committee chief Ashok Shaw. With this, the police have arrested two of the three accused. However, prime accused Sujal Shaw remains absconding.