Three days after her husband, Sukumar Mondal, and a relative were allegedly shot dead BSF personnel in Harudanga village near the Bangladesh border in Murshidabad district, Suchitra Mondal is yet to trace their bodies.
Ms. Mondal has lodged a complaint with the police, while Banglar Manabadhikar Suraksha Mancha (MASUM), a local partner of the international NGO Human Rights Watch, filed a complaint with the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Thursday.
According to Ms. Mondal, 25, her husband, Sukumar, 30, and his relative Paritosh Mondal of Lakkhinarayanpur in Raninagar block of Murshidabad, went to Harudanga on July 3 to immerse jute bundles. Later, Ms. Mondal received a call from residents of Harudanga, a 40 minute walk from Lakkhinarayanpur, informing her that the BSF had fired on the Mondals, both landless agricultural labourers.
“The villagers told me that the bodies were lying in the field,” Ms. Mondal said.
Police refusal
Ms. Mondal rushed to the Raninagar police station. However, the police refused to register a complaint. “Police went out to check and found nothing, they told me. But villagers told me that my husband and Paritosh Mondal were shot and killed,” Ms. Mondal, who is yet to locate the bodies, told The Hindu over the phone.
On July 4, Ms. Mondal travelled to the office of Superintendent of Police Mukesh Kumar in Baharampur, district headquarters of Murshidabad about 40 km from Raninagar, to lodge a complaint. However, Mr. Kumar denied having received any such complaint. In its petition MASUM pressed the NHRC for an inquiry. BSF’s public relations office in Kolkata said they were “not aware” of the incident but would “look into the complaint, if any, in a transparent manner.”