Darjeeling: Even before the initiation of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) process, a 42-year-old allegedly committed suicide in Jalpaiguri district out of anxiety. He was suffering from mental agony since he had misplaced documents of his ancestral land which he wanted to use as an NRC document. Anxiety and fear of NRC and lakhs being rendered homeless have already gripped Bengal, mainly in the rural belt. The fallout of the process in Assam has further aggravated the situation. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has time and again said that she will not allow NRC to take place in Bengal. 42-year-old Annada Rai of Borokamta area of Mainaguri Block of Jalpaiguri was found hanging from a Railway over-bridge near his house on Friday morning. He was a farmer by profession. "My brother was in agony over the NRC issue. He has been frantically searching for documents of our ancestral land which we cultivate. He wanted to use these documents as proof of our citizenship. However, he had somehow misplaced the documents and could not find them. He was in a state of great panic," stated Dakshada Rai, brother of the deceased. He had lodged a complaint at the Mainaguri police station in which he has mentioned about the NRC. The police have started an investigation. "We have not found any suicide note yet. We have come to learn that he was suffering from depression. We are trying to find the exact cause of his death," stated Avisekh Modi, Superintendent of Police, Jalpaiguri. The body has been sent to the Jalpaiguri Sadar hospital for post-mortem. It is stated that people have started making rounds of government offices, schools and banks to empower themselves with documents that can help them prove their legitimacy as Indian citizens and establish the fact that their families have been staying in India from before March 26, 1971 which is the NRC cut-off date. Those frantically in search of these documents include traders, retired government employees, youths and homemakers. Many of them are those with family members and relatives in Assam whose names have not figured in the final NRC list that was published on August 31.

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