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Kolkata, Nov 4 (IANS) On the day the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls began across West Bengal, a man allegedly committed suicide due to fear of the process.
An official said that a contractual employee from Uluberia in Howrah district committed suicide.
On Tuesday, over 80,000 booth-level officers (BLOs) started visiting households to distribute enumeration forms as part of the SIR exercise.
According to the police, the deceased has been identified as Zaheer Mal, a resident of Khalisani Gram Panchayat area of Uluberia East assembly constituency.
The 28-year-old youth worked as a daily wage labourer. Officials from Uluberia police station recovered his hanging body from his house. However, no suicide note was recovered from the house. The family claimed that Zaheer was afraid of SIR and hence took his life.
Regina Bibi, wife of the deceased, told media persons, “He was afraid of SIR. He always said that he would be sent to Bangladesh. This fear was running in his mind for the last few days. Due to this fear he committed suicide.
After the incident, on the instructions of the party’s All India General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee, a delegation of Trinamool Congress went to the house of the deceased.
After meeting the family of the deceased, State Public Works and Public Health Engineering Minister Pulak Roy said, “Our party stands with this family. An atmosphere of fear has been created in the state in the name of conducting SIR. It is being told that speaking in Bengali means being Bangladeshi. I will ask the central government to stop the politics of death.”
On the other hand, BJP claimed that Trinamool is responsible for such incidents.
Union Minister of State for Education and DoNER Sukant Majumdar said, “They are misleading the common people. People are unnecessarily scared. The Mamata Banerjee-Abhishek Banerjee party is trying to fulfill its political interests by threatening people on SIR.”
Trinamool Congress is highlighting alleged incidents of suicide in West Bengal due to fear of SIR and National Register of Citizens (NRC).
The party has alleged that ever since the SIR was announced, people are afraid that their names will be removed from the voter list of Bengal.
On October 28, Pradeep Kar, a resident of Panihati in North 24 Parganas district, allegedly committed suicide due to fear of SIR. Police claimed that they have found a ‘suicide note’ in which the same thing has been said.
Meanwhile, Khairul Sheikh, a resident of Dinhata in Cooch Behar district, allegedly tried to commit suicide by consuming poison due to the same fear.
It was also alleged that Kshitish Majumdar, 95, of West Midnapore district, committed suicide on October 30 due to fear of SIR. The family claimed that his name was not in the voter list of 2002.
On November 2, a hotel owner from Digha died at his home in Ramnagar in East Midnapore district. The name of the deceased is Sheikh Sirajuddin. The family claimed that the elderly businessman had become worried after seeing his father’s name wrong in a document. He died of heart disease.
The same day, the family of a migrant worker from West Bengal claimed that the worker fell ill and died while working in Tamil Nadu after hearing about the SIR. The name of the deceased is Bimal Santra (51). He is a resident of Nabagram in Jamalpur area of East Burdwan district.
Meanwhile, 60-year-old Haseena Baig, a resident of ward number 20 of Dankuni municipality in Hooghly district, died on Monday. His name was not in the voter list of 2002.
–IANS
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