Man Leaves Bodies of Wife and Infant Son at Morgue to Attend SIR Hearing in Bengal

The ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls in West Bengal has once again come under intense scrutiny following a deeply tragic incident from Malda district. In a stark illustration of the human cost being attributed to the exercise, a man reportedly left the bodies of his wife and infant son at a morgue on Friday so that he could attend a mandatory SIR hearing.

According to his brother-in-law, Abdur Rahman Ansari, the victim, Mohammad Yasin Ansari, a teacher by profession, was traveling with his wife, Halima Khatun, and their nine-month-old child to a bus stop. The family was attempting to reach the designated SIR hearing center after being summoned by election authorities.

Tragedy struck on the way when the rickshaw they were traveling in reportedly overturned. Abdur Rahman Ansari stated that Halima Khatun died on the spot due to severe injuries. Their infant son was rushed to a hospital but succumbed to injuries later, plunging the family into unimaginable grief.

Sources said both Halima Khatun and Mohammad Yasin Ansari had been called for the SIR hearing due to alleged discrepancies related to their appearance in official records. In the aftermath of the tragedy, a visibly devastated Yasin directly linked his loss to the circumstances surrounding the SIR process.

“That hearing was the only reason we had come here. Otherwise, we would not have been on this journey,” Mohammad Yasin Ansari said, expressing anguish and frustration. His remarks have added fuel to an already heated political debate over the implementation of the SIR exercise in the state.

The incident quickly drew sharp reactions from West Bengal’s ruling Trinamool congress (TMC), which squarely blamed the BJP-led central government and the Election Commission of India for what it described as avoidable suffering caused by the voter list revision process.

Prasenjit Das, the Youth Trinamool Congress president of Malda district, condemned the incident in strong terms. “We strongly condemn the way the Election Commission is forcing people into hardship and, in the process, taking lives at the behest of the BJP,” he said.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), however, rejected these allegations and accused the TMC of exploiting a personal tragedy for political mileage. BJP’s local spokesperson Amlan Bhaduri said the ruling party was deliberately politicizing deaths in the state to discredit the SIR process.

“TMC leaders want multiple deaths in West Bengal so they can push propaganda by linking unrelated incidents to SIR,” Bhaduri alleged. While expressing condolences over the Malda tragedy, he insisted that the TMC was unfairly blaming the voter revision exercise for deaths caused by accidents or natural reasons.

Echoing the BJP’s official stance, Bhaduri further claimed that the TMC was fundamentally opposed to a properly verified voter list in the state. “That is why they are creating fear and confusion around SIR,” he asserted.

The bitter political clash over the Special Intensive Revision has now extended beyond street-level rhetoric and into the judiciary. Last week, the Supreme Court heard a plea filed by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee challenging the ongoing SIR exercise.

Banerjee has told the court that the stress and pressure caused by the voter list revision has allegedly resulted in the deaths of more than 150 people across the state. Among those cited was a Booth-Level Officer (BLO), whom she claimed died due to extreme work-related stress following official directives linked to SIR.

As the political blame game intensifies, the Malda tragedy stands as a grim reminder of the emotional and human toll at the center of the controversy. The incident has sparked fresh debate over administrative accountability, the pace and manner of voter verification, and the broader impact of large-scale bureaucratic exercises on ordinary citizens.