Death after paper hunt Mamata Banerjee declared that 'at least 30 lives' had already been lost in Bengal over NRC-CAB fears

Elderly women are joined by others as they shout slogans during a protest rally against the Citizenship Amendment Bill in Guwahati, Assam, Friday, December 13, 2019. (AP)

Alamgir Hossain , TT, 14.12.19, Sagardighi: An elderly tea stall owner “inconsolable” at being unable to find “old property documents” died in Murshidabad’s Sagardighi on Thursday night, with his wife saying he “suffered a stroke” because Parliament had passed the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill barely 24 hours earlier.

On Friday, as the family of Qudrat Sheikh, 69, said he had feared his family would have to “go to jail or Bangladesh” because he could not find the papers, chief minister Mamata Banerjee declared that “at least 30 lives” had already been lost in Bengal over NRC-CAB fears and that the BJP was to blame for the deaths.

“My father did not sleep at all on Wednesday. He had hoped in vain that he would be able to find some old papers,” Sheikh’s eldest son, Abed Sheikh, 44, said from their home in Phulsahari village.

“Finally, on Thursday evening, he broke down on my shoulders crying,” Abed said, adding his father collapsed in Abed’s arms.

Phulsahari is a minority-dominated area. “On Wednesday night, Qudrat closed shop early and went home with a worried look on his face after being unable to find the papers. He opened the shop on Thursday but closed early again,” said Qudrat’s wife Suratvan Biwi.

She added that she and her son had tried to console Qudrat. “He had been inconsolable since Wednesday, saying we would have to go either to jail or to Bangladesh now. He was frantically looking for papers he knew he wouldn’t find.”

On Thursday evening, Qudrat dropped to the floor. “He suffered a stroke because the CAB was passed. There is no other explanation,” Biwi said.

Qudrat was taken to Jangipur Subdivisional Hospital, 15km away. He died there. Doctors mentioned the cause of death as “cerebral attack”.