Fearing’ SIR, another person dies by suicide in Bengal’s Nadia district

A day before the publication of the draft list of Special Intensive Revision (SIR), tomorrow, a 60-year-old person from Ranaghat in Nadia, committed suicide on Monday fearing that his name will be struck off from the voters’ list.

An elderly man in the Ranaghat area of the district has taken his own life. The deceased has been identified as Sushanta Biswas (60). His family claimed that he committed suicide by hanging himself at his home due to this fear on Monday morning.

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The situation worsened when some BJP leaders warned that names of millions in Bengal would be dropped. “Such statements created panic instead of clarity; insecurity instead of confidence,” Trinamul Congress leadership said.

According to the police, Sushanta Biswas lived in Matikumra Madhyapara under the Dhantala police station in Ranaghat. He worked in Kolkata.

According to his family, Sushanta Biswas had been living in fear since the SIR process began in the state. He was worried because his name was not on the 2002 voter list. He even stopped going outside. Neighbours tried to reassure him, but his fear persisted. He became increasingly depressed, fearing that his name might be removed from the voter list and that he might have to leave his home and move elsewhere.

A family member said Sushanta Biswas had filled the enumeration form.

His wife, Namita Biswas, said, “He was always afraid. He had almost stopped talking. We tried to explain things to him, but he would only talk about the SIR. He would say, ‘If they take me to jail, I will get a six-year sentence’. My mother-in-law’s name is on the 2002 list. Our names were removed because we were living away. This morning, I woke up to find him hanging with a towel around his neck.”

A senior officer of Ranaghat police district said, “The body has been recovered and sent for autopsy. It has been learnt that he died by suicide after living in fear for some days over his name not being on the 2002 voter list. A case has started. Investigation is underway.”

A few days ago, another person had similarly died by suicide in the same district over alleged fear of the Election Commission’s SIR process.

Trinamul Congress in its X handle wrote: “Voting is not a favour granted by the state, it is a constitutional right. Yet today ordinary citizens are being pushed into anxiety and despair over whether they will be allowed in the voter list. When a democratic process begins to terrorise citizens instead of empowering them, something has gone fundamentally wrong.”

The party leaders alleged that this fear is manufactured in some states. “Is this really about electoral reform or about intimidation because BJP knows it cannot win Bengal democratically? @bjp4india needs to understand that a democracy that rules through fear is no democracy at all.”