The victim's husband alleged she was gang-raped and murder. Police say it was suicide
The death of a woman in Bengal has led to a political fight between the ruling Trinamool Congress and its rival CPM.
The police today said three people have been arrested for allegedly abetting the woman's suicide and countered her husband's allegation that she was raped, paraded naked and killed on Sunday night.
"There was no rape, there were no external injuries. It is a case of suicide," Superintendent of Police Sukesh Jain told NDTV. The three who have been arrested allegedly went to the woman's house and threatened her.
The woman's husband had filed a police complaint alleging that she was gang-raped and killed by workers of the Trinamool, which has denied any involvement. His claim was supported by CPM leader and former minister Chakradhar Maikap.
The police said they found the woman hanging from the ceiling in her home in Sunia village of East Midnapore district on Monday morning, the door locked from inside.
The woman's family, the police said, initially alleged that she had committed suicide after some people visited her but the husband later filed the complaint of gang-rape and murder. The allegation that the woman was paraded naked has not been confirmed or substantiated.
The CPM alleges that the woman was attacked after she failed to pay a 12-lakh fine demanded by local Trinamool affiliates because her husband was a CPM worker who fled their village after the Left party was decimated in the 2011 state election.
In July, Tapas Pal, a Trinamool Congress parliamentarian, apologised after being caught on camera warning that he would have Left workers killed and their female relatives raped. However, Mr Pal was not penalised by his party.
The Trinamool is headed by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who ended three decades of Left rule in Bengal with that landslide victory in 2011.