Devasish Acharya, the man who slapped TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee in 2015, has died under mysterious circumstances in West Bengal. He was dropped at a hospital by some unidentified men on Thursday and was declared dead soon after. Early on Thursday morning, Devasish Acharya was taken to the Tamluk district hospital in Midnapore in a severely injured condition. The hospital records show he was brought to the facility at 4.10 am by some unknown men, who left soon after. He died in the afternoon. This is when his family found out about the mysterious death upon reaching the hospital and claimed that Devasish had been murdered.
In its preliminary investigation, the police found that Devasish Acharya had gone out with two of his friends on June 16 evening. The three men rode motorbikes when they stopped at a tea stall near the Sonapetya Toll Plaza. In 2015, Devasish Acharya dominated headlines when he got up on stage and slapped Abhishek Banerjee, TMC heavyweight and CM Mamata Banerjee’s nephew. He was brutally assaulted by TMC supporters immediately after and was left in a grievous state.He was also arrested by the police before Abhishek Banerjee intervened and appealed to release him as his family claimed Devasish was mentally unsound. While Abhishek Banerjee said he had “forgiven” his attacker, some TMC leaders were not as generous in their remarks. West Bengal minister and senior TMC leader Subrata Mukherjee had tried to draw a parallel between the slapping incident of 2015 and the assassination of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1984.