Kolkata: Two persons died by suicide within a span of 24 hours in West Bengal's Malda district, allegedly triggered by fear and anxiety linked to the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise, police said on Saturday.
On Friday night, a young man reportedly died after panicking over an error related to his father’s name on the Election Commission’s website. On Saturday morning, another man was found hanging at his residence, police said.
The second deceased has been identified as Abul Kalam. For reasons yet to be fully ascertained, he was unable to fill up the enumeration form under the SIR exercise. It is alleged that some of his neighbours frightened him by suggesting that he could be sent to a detention camp.
According to preliminary accounts, the fear of being sent to a detention camp had been weighing heavily on him. His body was found hanging inside his house on Saturday morning.
Local sources said the 52-year-old hailed from Balubhorat village in Harishchandrapur-I block of Malda district. He had earlier lived in Jaipur for a long period, where he worked at a hotel. The unmarried Abul Kalam later quit his job and returned to his village home.
The SIR process has recently begun in the state. While others in his locality received enumeration forms, he did not. It has emerged that the man did not possess either a voter identity card or an Aadhaar card. In addition, his parents’ names were reportedly not found in the 2002 voters’ list.
A senior officer of Malda district police said, “The man was worried after not receiving the enumeration form during the SIR process. He feared he might be sent to a detention camp. Some neighbours even suggested that he could be deported to Bangladesh. He was suffering from intense anxiety due to these fears. Prima facie, it appears that he died by suicide because of this.”
Police said the body was recovered after they were informed about the incident and was sent for post-mortem examination. An investigation has been initiated.
Meanwhile, on Friday night, another man from the same district died allegedly due to anxiety related to the SIR process.
The deceased, Barkat Sheikh, was a 32-year-old Trinamool Congress worker from Chakseherdi village in the Kaliachak-III block. His father’s name is Rahool Sheikh. It is alleged that on the Election Commission’s website, instead of displaying his father’s full name, only the surname ‘Sheikh’ appeared.
The young man reportedly believed that any discrepancy in his parents’ names could lead to complications during the enumeration process. The alleged incorrect entry of his father’s name caused him severe anxiety.
Family members said Barkat Sheikh had been visiting various offices to find out how the error could be corrected. They alleged that he did not receive any clear solution even after approaching the Block Development Officer’s (BDO) office. The family has claimed that he died due to the mental stress caused by the issue.
Police said an inquiry has been initiated into both incidents.
(Except for the headline, this article has not been edited by FPJ's editorial team and auto-generated from an agency feed.)
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