Young Bengal mother, minor daughter critical after alleged suicide attempt amid fears over SIR form, deportation

A young, 27-year-old mother allegedly attempted suicide along with her minor daughter in West Bengal, fearing deportation, after not receiving the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) enumeration form, PTI reported on November 9, citing her family.

The alleged incident happened on November 8 at the woman’s home at Dhaniakhali the report said. Police told the news agency that investigation is underway and both are in critical condition at SSKM Hospital’s ICU.

Family claims distress over SIR form

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.

TMC accuses BJP of ‘creating fear among people’

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. BJP is playing with people’s lives,” Patra said.

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.