Another suicide reported from West Bengal; fear of SIR exercise claimed as reason behind step
Kolkata, Nov 5 (IANS) Another case of suicide allegedly due to the fear of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls, has been reported from West Bengal, said the police on Wednesday.
This time, a young man’s body was found hanging at his in-laws’ house at Bhangar in South 24 Parganas district. The family claimed that their son-in-law committed suicide allegedly out of fear of the SIR exercise. Police said that the deceased man’s name is Shafiqul Gazi.
Shafiqul’s wife told media persons that her husband had been in a state of panic for the past few days. He was not talking to anyone properly and had also stopped eating and drinking.
Sometimes he would sit with papers and would tell his wife that they did not have all the papers required for the SIR.
“He used to tell me that ‘I do not have all papers. They will throw me out of here’. He had been saying all these things for the last two days,” said the wife.
According to police sources, the man went to bed after eating dinner on Tuesday night. Early on Wednesday morning, his wife and son went out for work. Later, his hanging body was recovered from the house in the morning.
The police have recovered the body and sent it for autopsy. While he used to live in his in-laws’ house in Bhangar, his real home is in North 24 Parganas district.
After receiving the news, Trinamool Congress Canning East MLA Saokat Molla went to meet the family. “I heard that his parents have valid documents. But he does not have any of his own documents. There is no land document either. This incident happened out of fear. The BJP will have to answer for this,” said the Trinamool MLA.
Meanwhile, BJP leader Rahul Sinha said, “SIR has made the situation for Trinamool so bad that the party is doing politics over dead bodies. They are just keeping track of who is dying where and branding it as a consequence of the SIR exercise.”
On Tuesday, when the SIR of electoral rolls began across West Bengal, one person allegedly committed suicide out of fear of the exercise. The family claimed that a contract worker from Uluberia in Howrah district committed suicide.
–IANS
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