The CBI has recovered the mobile phone of Niranjan Baishnab, a witness to the murder of Jhalda Congress councillor Tapan Kandu, from the same room where he was found hanging at his residence on April 6.

Niranjan’s unnatural death prompted his family members to accuse police of mentally torturing the private tutor to write something related to Tapan’s murder against his wishes that provoked him to commit suicide.

The CBI, which is investigating the unnatural death following a Calcutta High Court order, inspected Niranjan’s room on Thursday and found the mobile phone lying under a television stand. The phone was switched off. A pen was also found on the table where the television set was kept.

CBI officials said the purported suicide note seized from the room where Niranjan was hanging may had been written with the same pen. They will send the cellphone and the pen for forensic tests. The alleged suicide note had already been sent for a forensic test.

The room was sealed by the police after Niranjan’s death on April 6.

The CBI collected the keys from the police and searched the room in the presence of Niranjan’s family members.

The Jhalda police in Purulia district inspected the room on the day Niranjan was found hanging, but did not find the mobile phone or the pen.

“If the mobile phone and the pen were not found at that time, how are they discovered now? The room was sealed and the keys were with the police. So, it is not possible to keep the phone and the pen there before our yesterday’s inspection,” a CBI source said on Friday.

Niranjan’s elder brother Nepal said he had no idea how the phone and the pen were found.

“On the day we found him (Niranjan) hanging, we didn’t find the mobile phone there. We found only the suicide note in the room. The police may not have searched the room properly,” he said.

Niranjan was found hanging from the ceiling of his room on April 6. The purported suicide note said about his mental stress following repeated summons by the police and the memory of the murder of his childhood friend Tapan.

The CBI sources said the statements of the eyewitnesses to Tapan’s murder did not match with the post-mortem report of the slain Congress leader.

Sources said the CBI would interrogate the autopsy surgeon who had carried out the post-mortem on Tapan’s body.