Kolkata: Baidyanath Hazra, a 47-year-old resident of R.N. Guha Road in Ward 9 of South Dum Dum Municipality, died by suicide after days of intense panic triggered by the ongoing Special Intensive Revision of voter rolls.
According to family members, Baidhyanath lost both his parents at a young age. Their names were absent from the 2002 voter list—a fact that had deeply unsettled him. Although he was old enough to be registered as a voter in 2002, his own name, too, never appeared on that list, for reasons still unknown.
Baidhyanath worked as a car driver and lived with his wife and two children. As the SIR process began across Bengal, he reportedly grew terrified about the consequences of his name being missing from the 2002 list. With his parents already deceased and unable to provide any documentary validation, he feared his family would face serious trouble.
According to his wife, Baidyanath had been suffering from severe mental distress for days, overwhelmed by fears, he was anxious and couldn’t eat or sleep properly. CCTV footage reportedly shows him leaving home late at night without his phone—something that troubled the family, as they could not reach him.
The next morning, his body was found hanging from a tree outside his house.
The tragedy has added to the growing concerns across Bengal, with the SIR-linked death toll now rising to 22.