Three women try to commit suicide in front of Calcutta HC; attempt foiled by cops

Kolkata, Aug 12: In an unprecedented development, three women attempted to commit suicide at one of the main entrances of the Calcutta High Court in central Kolkata on Tuesday afternoon by setting themselves on fire, allegedly over the fear that their names would be deleted from the voters’ list after the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter rolls in West Bengal. 

However, the alert cops on security duty foiled their attempts and nabbed all three of them just after they saw one of them pouring kerosene on her body with the help of the other two.

The three women have been identified as Purnima Halder, Sutishna Sapui, and Bandana Nashkar.
 All of them are residents of the area under the jurisdiction of the Bishnupur Police Station in the South 24 Parganas district.

"Purnima Halder was the one who had poured kerosene on her body," said a city police official. They were immediately shifted to the state-run S.S.K.M. Medical College & Hospital in South Kolkata from the Calcutta High Court premises.

After the initial medical check-up, the cops are currently questioning them to ascertain why they made such a desperate attempt, and that, too, in front of the Calcutta High Court.

Sources from the city police said that in the face of interrogation, they stated that they had received information that their names would be deleted from the electoral rolls after the SIR of voters' list by the Election Commission of India (ECI) starts in West Bengal.

However, the interrogating officials are taking this claim with a pinch of salt since the SIR is yet to start in West Bengal.

The ruling Trinamool Congress had already claimed that they would oppose the SIR revision process tooth and nail.

Trinamool Congress General Secretary and the leader of the party in the Lok Sabha, Abhishek Banerjee, said on Tuesday that the SIR proposed by the ECI was acceptable only if the current Parliament is dissolved.

“If I agree with you that SIR was necessary since there were manipulations in the voters’ list, then you will also have to accept that the last Lok Sabha elections were conducted with that manipulated voters’ list. So the current Parliament should be dismantled. Since the Prime Minister and the Union Home Minister were elected by that manipulated voters' list, they should also resign.

"In the meantime, there were Assembly elections in some states, with a manipulated voters' list. So the Assemblies in those states should also be dismantled,” Abhishek Banerjee told media persons outside the Kolkata Airport before leaving for Delhi in the afternoon.