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Woman, daughter critical after alleged suicide bid over SIR form fear in West Bengal
The woman and her daughter are currently in critical condition at SSKM Hospital's ICU, police said. An investigation into the alleged incident is underway.
A 27-year-old woman in West Bengal's Hooghly district allegedly attempted suicide along with her minor daughter, reportedly out of fear after not receiving a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) enumeration form, her family claimed on Sunday.
The alleged incident took place at the woman's home at Dhaniakhali in the district on Saturday.
The woman and her daughter are currently in critical condition at SSKM Hospital's ICU, police said, adding that an investigation into the alleged incident is underway.
According to the woman's father, she was deeply distressed after she did not receive the SIR form while other family members did.
"She was frightened because she had no documents and feared being deported. Out of panic, she consumed poison along with her daughter," he said after visiting her daughter in Kolkata.
She had been living at her parental home in Dhaniakhali in the district for the past six years following a marital dispute. She had been under visible mental stress for the past few days, they said.
Dhaniakhali Trinamool Congress MLA Asima Patra accused the BJP of creating fear among people through misleading statements about NRC and detention camps.
"When BJP leaders talk about sending people to detention camps, it spreads panic across Bengal. A similar case occurred in Dankuni a few days ago," Patra said, adding, "BJP is playing with people's lives.
The Trinamool Congress, in a post on X, also shared images of party leaders visiting the families of two persons who allegedly died by suicide recently in Sainthia (Birbhum) and Bhangar (South 24 Parganas) over similar fears.
"As admitted by the Home Minister himself, the @BJP4India is on a mission to 'detect, delete and deport.' Bengalis are legitimate citizens of this country who have lived here for generations with pride and dignity. Today these very sons and daughters of the soil are being subjected to a humiliating test of citizenship in their own homeland. The climate of fear and anxiety, deliberately engineered by the BJP, is now claiming innocent lives," the pasty said.
