After a 95-year-old man was found hanging at his daughter’s residence in Ilambazar area of Birbhum district on Thursday, his family claimed that he was afraid of getting deported to Bangladesh following the Election Commission’s announcement to hold Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls in West Bengal from November 4.
Police, however, said that they have not found any suicide note that would link the death to the panic over the SIR. “Kshitish Majumder, 95, a resident of Paschim Medinipur, has committed suicide. He was living at his daughter’s house in Ilambazar area of Birbhum district. We have come to know that the cause of suicide is the panic over the SIR. However, no written complaint has been lodged with us,” Superintendent of Police (Birbhum) Amandeep said.
According to Majumder’s family, he was afraid of the SIR since his name was not on the 2002 voters’ list. The 95-year-old had moved to India from Bangladesh at a very early age.
“My grandfather’s name was not on the 2002 voters’ list. He had come from Bangladesh many years ago and had to endure a lot of hardships. He was afraid of being deported to Bangladesh. He was scared of what would happen to him if he were sent to Bangladesh at this old age,” Majumder’s granddaughter Nirmala said.
This is the third such incident since the announcement of SIR on Monday.
On Tuesday, 57-year-old Pradeep Kar was found hanging at his residence. A note in his diary stated that the NRC (National Register of Citizens) was “responsible”. While Kar was born and brought up in West Bengal, his father had come to India from Bangladesh nearly six decades ago.
On Wednesday, a 70-year-old farmer in Cooch Behar allegedly tried to kill himself, fearing that his name would be deleted from the voters’ list due to a spelling error in his name in the official documents.
Khairul Sheikh, who is admitted to the ICU, said that he drank poison fearing his name would be deleted from the voters’ list in the SIR, as the spelling of his name in the 2002 voters’ list and voter ID was different.