3 commit suicide, NRC fears blamed

TT, 25 September 2019, Jalpaiguri/ Alipurduar: Two persons allegedly committed suicide in Jalpaiguri and a third in Cooch Behar on Tuesday, with their families claiming they did so after failing to find papers amid fears of NRC in Bengal.

The relatives Shyamal Roy, 40, Shaber Ali, 42, and Arjina Khatun Bibi said they had been upset as they could not find proper documents to prove that their families had been residing in India since before 1971 -- the NRC cut-off date in Assam.

With these deaths, four persons have taken their lives in north Bengal over fears attributed to the register in the past few days.

Repeated assurances from chief minister Mamata Banerjee that NRC has nothing to do with Bengal seems to have failed to calm the fears.

In Jalpaiguri, Roy, a day labourer, was hanging from a tree near his house at Barmanpara in Dhupguri on Tuesday morning.

"He was suffering in liver ailments and could not find his voter andAadhar card. He was also worried over some mistakes in the cards of his daughter. For past few days, he was upset and was murmuring about the probable consequences which he might face in case NRC is initiated in Bengal," said Mayanti, wife.

Ali, who is from Bahadur panchayat in Jalpaiguri sadar block, committed suicide by jumping in the well of his house. He was a farmer.

Liyakat Ali, Shaber's uncle, said that he had once told him that he needs to correct certain mistakes in his voter and Aadhaar cards.

"He had tried couple of times but failed to get those rectified. Recently, he was under psychological pressure and was often asking us as what would happen to him if NRC is implemented in Bengal," said Liyakat.

In Cooch Behar, the family members of Arjina said she had panicked over NRC and was in depression as she lacked proper documents to prove her identity.

Anwar Hussain, her husband, said on Monday, they had been to the BDO office for the correcting their voter and Aadhaar cards. "She was worried and said that her documents are not proper. She also shuddered over the fear that she would be detained if she could not make it to NRC," said Hussain.

Last week, Annada Roy, a farmer from Madhabdanga in Maynaguri block of Jalpaiguri had committed suicide after he could not find old documents to prove his citizenship.

On Tuesday, Trinamul minister Arup Biswas visited Roy's family..