95-yr-old Birbhum resident ends life driven by ‘SIR fear’
Times of India | 31 October 2025Midnapore resident Kshitish Majumdar, who migrated to India from Bangladesh's Barisal 40 years back and was staying with his daughter at her Illambazar home in Birbhum for some time, was scared of "being pushed back to Bangladesh or sent to detention camps" at this advanced age as his name was not there on the 2002 Bengal Special Intensive Revision (SIR) list, his daughter and granddaughter alleged.
Kshitish's death is the third SIR- or NRC-driven incident in Bengal in as many days.
A Panihati resident (who, too, had come to India as a child) died by suicide at his home on Tuesday, prompting his family to allege he was driven to despair by fears over NRC. Another Cooch Behar man tried to end his life on Wednesday by consuming pesticide; his family blamed SIR fears for the incident.
Election Commission of India announced the rollout of SIR in Bengal and several other states on Tuesday.
CM Banerjee on Thursday took to X soon after Thursday's death, squarely blaming SIR for the tragedies.
"We are witnessing the tragic consequences of BJP's politics of fear, division and hate. Within 72 hours of EC's announcement of SIR exercise in Bengal — an exercise bulldozed through at BJP's behest — one avoidable tragedy after another has occurred," she posted.
She also appealed to everyone not to "take any extreme step". "I appeal to every citizen: do not be provoked, do not lose faith, and do not take any extreme step," she posted.
CM Banerjee posted: "We will not allow NRC to be implemented in Bengal, neither through the front door, nor through the back door. We will not permit a single legitimate citizen to be branded an ‘outsider'. We will fight to protect the rights of the people and to defeat the BJP and their allies' nefarious agenda to tear apart the social fabric of our nation till the last drop of our blood."
Banerjee referred to all the three incidents in her post and called the 95-year-old's death a betrayal of humanity.
"Who will answer for these avoidable, politically inflicted tragedies? Will the union home minister (Amit Shah) accept responsibility? Will the BJP and its allies, under whose watch this fear psychosis has spread, find the courage to speak out? A 95-year-old man, who has given his life to this soil, is forced to die to prove he belongs to it.
What could be a deeper wound on the nation's conscience? This is not just tragedy, it is betrayal of humanity itself," she wrote.
Kshitish, his family said, was a voter in Midnapore Municipality's (Ward 1, Booth 153). He would divide his time between his Midnapore home and his daughter and granddaughter's homes in Birbhum's Illambazar and East Burdwan's Ausgram, respectively.
Hiru Bala, Kshitish's granddaughter, said "Dadu" — ever since all the SIR talk started — would constantly worry that he would be pushed to Bangladesh or put in detention camps as he was not a voter in 2002. "We tried to allay his fears but he was terrified at the thought of being forced away from his family," she added. His daughter, Putul Biswas, corroborated that her dad "ended his life in fear and anxiety". Kshitish, a carpenter, faced a lot of hardship to fend for the family, she added.
"Fear of SIR is the reason for the suicide," Birbhum superintendent of police Amandeep said. An autopsy was done and an unnatural death case was lodged, officials said.
