A 30-year-old man in West Bengal’s Howrah district died allegedly by suicide on Tuesday, as he was reportedly distressed over errors in his identity document amid the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, a police officer said.
Jahir Mal, a resident of Khalisani in Uluberia area, was found hanging in his residence in the morning.
The officer said that the family of the deceased informed the police that he was under severe stress after discovering a spelling error in one of his official documents.
He had visited local offices concerned over the past few weeks in an effort to correct the mistake but was unsuccessful, the officer said.
“Jahir feared that the error could lead to complications in verifying his citizenship or voter eligibility during the SIR process,” he said.
Trinamool Congress (TMC) general secretary Abhishek Banerjee directed minister Pulak Roy to visit the bereaved family.
Roy met the relatives later in the day and assured them of support.
Banerjee has claimed that seven people died in West Bengal in a week out of fear that their names would be omitted from the electoral rolls during the SIR.
Discussing suicides can be triggering for some. However, suicides are preventable. A few major suicide prevention helpline numbers in India are 011-23389090 from Sumaitri (Delhi-based) and 044-24640050 from Sneha Foundation (Chennai-based).
