2 die in Murshidabad post hearing, kin blame ‘SIR fear’
Times of India | 16 January 2026
Behrampore: Two people died in Murshidabad, with families blaming SIR hearing anxiety in both cases.
According to the family of Uttar Latiberpara's Sabera Bibi, the 45-year-old woman fell ill on Wednesday, hours after getting back after a hearing at Lalgola BDO office. She had received a hearing notice over "logical discrepancies". She was taken to Krishnapur Rural Hospital, where doctors said she died after a cardiac arrest due to high blood pressure.
Sabera's daughter Samima Khatun said the issue involved a name mismatch and that her mother had been anxious since seeing a large crowd and altercations in the queue of hearing, where she waited for over three hours.
Rameswarpur's Putu Seikh died after a heart attack on Wednesday while his daughters-in-law were at Shamsherganj BDO office for hearings. Beauty Khatun said her 64-year-old father-in-law had attended an SIR hearing the previous week over a spelling mismatch and had been anxious that the family's names would be struck off the voter list when the daughter-in-law got notices.
While Shamsherganj TMC MLA Amirul Islam said repeated harassment by EC and changing guidelines had added to voters' distress, Congress neta Adhir Chowdhury said Rahul Gandhi had raised concerns over alleged harassment of voters and TMC was merely going for political posturing. He questioned why state govt was not giving out birth and domicile certificates to reduce harassment.