Issue death certs for Nandigram 3 who went missing in 2007: HC
Times of India | 20 July 2024
Kolkata: Seventeen years after three Nandigram villagers went missing after participating in the anti-land acquisition movement, Calcutta High Court on Thursday stepped in to help their widows get death certificates of their husbands.
Justice Shampa Sarkar directed the state panchayat department to hand over the death certificates of Satyen Gole, Aditya Bera and Balaram Singh to their families within a month.
The trio went missing in Nov 2007 and were later named in the list of martyrs published by East Midnapore Zilla Parishad in 2016.
Petitioner Durga Rani Gole had moved the high court praying for the death certificate of her husband and others.
The three Bhumi Uchhed Pratirodh Committee (BUPC) members never returned home after a rally from Gokulnagar village to Maheshpur on Nov 10, 2007. Their families lodged missing diaries at police stations but cops were unable to find them.
More than eight years after they went missing, the families came across a martyrs’ list issued by East Midnapore Zilla Parishad in which they were named.
Based on the list, the petitioner in 2022 approached local panchayat authorities, requesting them to issue a death certificate. After failing to get a response for two years, she went to the high court.
The petitioner argued that according to Section 108 of Indian Evidence Act 1872, if a person was not heard of for seven years, the burden of proof shifted to those who claimed s/he was alive. The families said their husbands were untraceable despite police and authorities being informed, and they did not believe the three were alive 17 years after going missing.
They also said that one among the missing, Aditya Bera, was an ex-serviceman and the family could not withdraw his retirement benefits due to the lack of a death certificate.