Meritorious JU student murdered for dowry

Dwaipayan Ghosh | Oct 15, 2016,KOLKATA: Mita Mondal, fondly known as Mita among her Jadavpur University batch mates, had always loved life. When she got married in on April 22 this year - she had promised a grand treat the day she "felt she has been liberated from all her bondages." 

Yet, even a first class postgraduate degree in Bengali from JU could hardly do enough to rub out the evils patriarchal society of which she ultimately fell a victim, felt her friends who have now launched an online campaign through various social networking sites to secure justice for her. 

According to records, 24-year-old Mita joined JU in 2013 and passed out with flying colours two years later. 

It was her chance meeting with Rana Mondal - a HS pass-out and a technician with a private hospital at Kushberia in Uluberia two years ago at a marriage ceremony that turned in to a relationship. The two families met formally months ago and their marriage solemnized. It was supposed to have been a major transformation for Mita whose father Sahadeb Das worked as a head mason residing at Sukantapally in Garia. Her mother works as a domestic help and two elder brothers - Bappa and Khokon - barely manages to make ends meet through a small business. The family - staying in a house made of brick-tiled roof and walls of grass mats - was forced to ask Mita to impart tuitions to children to make ends meet. She was even earning money through stitching clothes - her clients mostly her classmates at JU. It was an indeed an extra-ordinary story of grit and courage. 

Her friend Shardwaitya Manna recalled that Mita never complained about either her husband or in-laws despite the fact that her husband was an alcoholic and often beat her up. In the intervening months since April, all her family came to know was that she had something to share with her family. "She came in Chaturti and Rana came to fetch her back on Saptami. Mita did confess that she needed Rs 1 lakh to my father. To another friend she said she had to undergo an abortion," said Kokhon one of her brothers. 

It was on Dashami that the family received a call from Rana at 5 am informing them that Mita had tried to commit suicide. 15 minutes later, they were informed that she had died. When her family members reached Sanjivan Nursing Home (of which Rana was a technician) they were told there was a suicide note. The cops found none. The woman had grievous injuries on her body - she was bleeding profusely from her nose and there were marks on her neck. Police said the distance between her residence and nursing home was barely 5 minutes - she was shifted 1.5 hours later. The cops have so far arrested Rana and his father Bijendra Mondal but his mother and brother are still absconding. Jadavpur University students have now written open letters asking for exemplanary punishment to Mita's "killers" even as cops wait for postmortem report to slap further accused.