KOLKATA: In two tragic incidents, a man from West Bengal’s Murshidabad, who was stranded in Kerala, committed suicide on Saturday while the wife of a labourer who is in Uttar Pradesh, attempted suicide with her minor son by jumping into the Hooghly.
Iqbal Mondal, 22, went to Kerala five months ago to work as a labourer under a mason. “He became jobless because of lockdown. My son could not board a train that arrived Bengal on May 6 and since then he was suffering from depression. He contacted me and I asked him to wait. This was the first time he left home to work as a migrant labourer. On Saturday evening, I was informed that my son hanged himself,’’ said Iqbal’s father Javed.
Some of migrants managed to return Murshidabad in a special train. “The contractor, who hired Iqbal, did not clear his dues. He was running short of money to eat. He broke down when the police told him that he would get a chance next time,’’ said Mohammad Asgar, who managed to return from Kerala.
In Kolkata, a 28-year-old man left her in-laws’ house with her three-year-old son saying she was going to buy medicine. “Her husband went to Uttar Pradesh eight months ago but got stranded for lockdown. Some pavement dwellers spotted the woman walking towards the jetty on the banks of Hooghly near Howrah railway station. They became suspicious and followed her. As the woman jumped into the water with her son, they rescued both of them,’’ said a police officer.In her statement, the woman told police that her in-laws had been torturing her since past two weeks after her husband failed to send money.
Depressed man hangs himself in Jharkhand
In Jharkhand, a debt-ridden farmer allegedly committed suicide at Dumbo in Gumla as hailstorm ruined his crops. According to family members of Pradeep Oraon, the farmer had taken `30,000 from a private bank for Rabi farming. Before the lockdown, Pradeep had opened a hotel which he was forced to close due to the lockdown. The victim’s father said that losing all hope, his son hanged himself from a tree a few meters outside their house