Brishti Mukherjee, 28, the daughter of Nihar Mukherjee, a maternal cousin of former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, has died allegedly by suicide in Birbhum district. Her body was found hanging inside her home in Kusumba village at around 9 am on Tuesday, 1st September.
Mukherjee had reportedly been facing personal and legal difficulties in recent years. She had been named in allegations linked to the primary teacher recruitment scam in West Bengal. She and her husband had also filed for divorce. According to family members, Mukherjee had been battling depression for the past few years and was undergoing treatment. The exact circumstances surrounding her death, however, are yet to be established.
#WATCH | Niece of former West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee found dead at her father's residence in Kusumba village, Rampurhat in Birbhum. Police present at the spot. Further Police action is underway: SP Birbhum
— ANI (@ANI) September 1, 2026
Visuals from the spot. pic.twitter.com/pRYcfRgpqB
A police investigation is underway. The body was recovered and sent to Rampurhat Government Medical College and Hospital for a post-mortem examination.
“The body has been sent for post-mortem examination. An investigation is underway. The circumstances leading to the death will be established after the post-mortem and other procedural inquiries,” a police officer told news agency PTI.
Mukherjee had also lost her job following the Supreme Court’s intervention in the West Bengal school recruitment case. She was working as a non-teaching staff member at Bolpur Upper Primary School when her appointment was cancelled in March 2023.
The Supreme Court had scrapped recruitment orders for teachers and non-teaching staff in state government-aided schools amid allegations of a large-scale ‘cash-for-jobs’ recruitment scam. Nearly 26,000 teaching and non-teaching employees were affected by the decision.
Nihar Mukherjee, Brishti’s father, is a maternal cousin of Mamata Banerjee and is also associated with the Trinamool Congress (TMC) at the regional level.
