WOMAN KILLS SELF AFTER CONSTANT HARASSMENT...NAMES 2 TRINAMUL ACTIVISTS IN SUICIDE NOTE; BOTH ARRESTED

SNS, Siliguri, 19 February: Police arrested two persons here today after a school teacher committed suicide holding them responsible. The teacher in a suicide note, had mentioned that she was unable to bear the continuous harassment by the arrested youths and hence took the drastic step. Police found her body hanging in her residence last evening.

Rita Sarkar (32) was a geography teacher at Saktigarh Balika Bidyalaya in Siliguri and lived with her mother at Saktigarh.

The accused persons have been identified as Subir Saha and Mithun Das, who are also Trinamul Congress activists.

The family members of the deceased said the accused used to threaten Rita Sarkar and her mother, Rekha Sarkar to vacate their house, apparently to build an apartment building at the site.

"My sister had told me that they used to threaten them knowing that only two women reside in the house.I suspect there are some other persons involved with the accused who had targeted our house and land," said the elder brother of Rita Sarkar, Bikrarm Sarkar, who runs a jewellery shop in Raiganj.

Police said the five-page suicide note mentioned that she was being continuously harassed on her way in the school and also when she returned after school gave out, which had left her traumatised. She had avoided going to the school on Friday and Saturday.

The note, which starts with two lines from Rabindranath Tagore's song, reads quit...many are responsible for the consequence do not know all of them...{ she mentions two names)...they deserve stringent punishment".

She also mentioned the names of three school para teachers, who had allegedly tried to defame her.

A few school teachers and students visited Rita's house today and expressed their condolences over the incident.

"I came to know about the incident this morning and I am terribly shocked. I did not know that she had accused some of the para teachers," said the school teacher-in-charge Swapna Singha. The family members also lodged an FIR against the accused persons.

Thu Siliguri deputy commissioner of zone II, east, Gaurav Lal said two persons were arrested.

"Police arrested two persons. We have received a complaint from the family members. Police have started an investigation," the deputy commissioner said.

Police sources said the duo had been charged with abatement to suicide. The area is grief-stricken over the incident.

The family members, local residents, the school teachers expressed their grief over the incident and demanded stringent action be taken against the accused persons, so that such a trend is stopped.

"They are anti socials. I do not know whether they belong to any political party We are demanding exemplary punishment for those who are responsible," said Rita's neighbour Ananda Mondal.