Trinamool Congress takes out rally in Panihati over ‘suicide’ of man
Kolkata: The Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Thursday took out a protest rally at Panihati in North 24-Parganas district over the death of a 57-year-old man, who allegedly killed himself out of “anxiety” surrounding the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
The deceased, identified as Pradeep Kar, was found hanging in his room on Tuesday, a day after the Election Commission (EC) announced the SIR exercise across Bengal. A handwritten note, recovered near his body, mentioned his fear of being left out of the voter list due to documentation issues, local police sources said. Led by TMC chief whip in the Assembly and local MLA Nirmal Ghosh, party workers and residents marched through the streets of Panihati, around 18 km from Kolkata, carrying placards with ‘Justice for Pradeep Kar’ written on them and photographs of Kar.
The protestors raised slogans against the Election Commission and the BJP, accusing them of creating panic among ordinary citizens in the name of voter list verification. “Pradeep Kar died due to anxiety over NRC and SIR. The climate of fear and confusion spread by the BJP and the Election Commission drove this innocent man to death,” Ghosh alleged during the rally. “FIRs should be filed against Union Home minister Amit Shah and Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. They are directly responsible for this atmosphere of terror. I challenge them to show all their documents as they demand from common people,” he said.
Several TMC leaders said Kar’s suicide note revealed his growing distress over proving his citizenship and his dread of exclusion from the voter list.
“The note clearly mentions his fear that he might lose his rights if his documents were found incomplete. This shows the deep insecurity created by this entire exercise,” a TMC functionary said. Party workers said the incident has sparked unease in the locality, where many residents fear that the SIR process could be a “backdoor NRC” aimed at targeting vulnerable communities.
