According to reports, Mukherjee’s body was found hanging on the first floor of her home in Kusumba village in West Bengal’s Birbhum district at around 9 am on Tuesday.
Mukherjee had reportedly lost her job as a non-teaching staff member at an upper primary school in Bolpur in March 2023.
The development comes against the backdrop of the West Bengal school recruitment case, in which the Calcutta High Court in April 2024 cancelled the recruitment of nearly 25,753 teaching and non-teaching staff in government-sponsored and government-aided schools.
The court had dismissed the entire 2016 recruitment panel following allegations of irregularities, including claims that some appointments were made through favouritism and alleged financial exchanges.
The recruitment panel was constituted by the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC).
The case became one of the major corruption controversies during Mamata Banerjee’s tenure as West Bengal Chief Minister. Then state Education Minister Partha Chatterjee, along with MLAs from the ruling Trinamool Congress and senior officials associated with the School Service Commission and the education board, were arrested in connection with the case.
Mukherjee’s father, Nihar Mukherjee, is reportedly Mamata Banerjee’s maternal cousin and a local Trinamool Congress leader.
The circumstances surrounding Mukherjee’s death are being investigated.