Police in Nadia’s Santipur on Sunday arrested a man, allegedly the brother of a civic police volunteer, for assaulting and humiliating a woman for plucking flowers from his residence without permission on Friday, which according to her family led her to take her own life.
Arrested Ashim Karati’s younger brother Milan Karati is a civic volunteer.
Milan, along with two other family members, has also been named in the complaint filed by Moushumi De, deceased Saraswati De’s daughter.
Both Milan and Ashim are known locally as Trinamool supporters and, according to residents, frequently intimidate people in the locality by using their clout.
While the police arrested Ashim, they only took departmental action against Milan, placing him under suspension by “closing” his duties for the time being.
On Sunday, Ashim was produced in the additional chief judicial magistrate’s court in Ranaghat, which remanded him to seven days in judicial custody.
According to the deceased woman’s family and neighbours in the Nrisinhapur area of Haripur panchayat, she was confronted by Ashim and others around 4.30am on Friday when she was “stealing” flowers from a tree at the Karati residence.
The 50-year-old IDCS worker was allegedly tied to a tree and slapped repeatedly in front of several morning walkers until she begged for forgiveness.
Later that day, members of the Karati family reportedly came to Saraswati’s home and warned her of dire consequences if she ever dared to pluck flowers from their tree again. Her son watched the whole incident.
Saraswati was found hanging from the ceiling of a cattle shed next to her house early on Saturday.
Saraswati lived with her young son while her husband, a construction worker, stayed in Calcutta. Her two daughters were married.
“After she was humiliated on Friday morning, Milan, Ashim and their wives came home and threatened her again in front of our brother. Both our mother and brother were traumatised. My mother is gone and my brother is unable to speak properly,” said daughter Moushumi, who lodged the formal complaint.
Moushumi added the possibility of foul play or murder could not be ruled out.
“It is not clear to me why they stormed our house again in the evening,” Moushumi said.
A police officer from Santipur police station said: “We have initiated a probe and found that Ashim Karati and his wife were directly involved in confronting the woman. Ashim has been arrested under charges of abetment to suicide. The civic volunteer, Milan, was not present at the time of the incident, but he has been removed from duty until the investigation is complete.”
While some members of the Karati family denied all allegations, claiming that Saraswati was a habitual flower thief, their version failed to gain support from local residents. “She was caught red-handed stealing flowers and she did apologise with folded hands, but no one assaulted her,” said one woman from the Karati family who declined to be named.
Many others in the locality disputed that claim and refused to corroborate the family’s version of events.
The incident has once again brought to light the growing concerns over the unchecked highhandedness of certain civic volunteers across the state, especially those with political backing.
In May, the state government was left red-faced after the suicide of an 11-year-old boy, Krishnendu Das, in Panskura, East Midnapore, who consumed pesticide after being publicly humiliated by a civic volunteer for allegedly taking a packet of chips. That tragedy, too, triggered widespread outrage.