Suicide after kangaroo court

TT, Tamluk, Nov. 5: A youth and his mother-in-law, who were allegedly in a relationship, committed suicide by consuming pesticide in an East Midnapore village after a kangaroo court chaired by a Trinamul leader ordered the two not to see each other.

The bodies of the 35-year-old woman and her 25-year-old son-in-law were found in a vegetable field, about one-and-a-half kilometre away from their house in Moyna this morning.

According to a brother-in-law of the woman, her son-in-law used to beat up his wife when she protested the alleged relationship between the two.

“My elder brother stays in Calcutta for work and returns home once a week. When he came home on Saturday, neighbours told him about my sister-in-law’s relationship with her son-in-law. Then, he requested a member of the local Gokulnagar gram panchayat, Rabindranath Das, to hold a kangaroo court,” he said.

The brother-in-law said the woman’s son-in-law used to work as a zari worker in Uttar Pradesh. “But after marrying my niece six months ago, he never went back. He used to work in embroidery shops at Panskura and stayed with his wife at my sister-in-law’s house,” he added.

The kangaroo court was held on Monday night, when at least 25 people, including the members of both families and local Trinamul Congress leaders such as Swapan Das, Vivek Maity, Tulu Pramanick and Abhijit Pramanick, were present. Das is also a former Trinamul member of Gokulnagar gram panchayat.

“It had been decided in the meeting that they would not see each other. They were also told not to meet each other even outside their home. None of the members of both the families had raised objection. But now, it appears that the youth and his mother-in-law could not bear the accusation of the illegal relationship and that the matter was made public,” one of the villagers who had attended the meeting said.

Panchayat member Rabindranath Das denied having attended the kangaroo court. “I did not attend the meeting. I don’t know who were present in the meeting,” said Das.

Trinamul Congress leader Swapan Das who had attended the meeting said: “We tried to find a solution through discussion. We had not imposed anything on them, we advised them not to meet each other.”