A 55-year-old man was found dead in the Manikchak block of Malda district on Tuesday morning, with relatives attributing the death to mental stress after his two sons had received hearing notices over “logical discrepancies” in the electoral roll.

Sariful Sheikh was spotted dead in his room at Nichu-Tiorpara village in Nurpur panchayat in the Manikchak block.

According to the family, Sariful’s two sons had been served with notices for a hearing regarding discrepancies arising from a mismatch in Sariful’s name in the 2002 electoral roll.

“We received the hearing notice on January 22 because of a discrepancy in our father’s name in the 2002 electoral roll. Since then, my father had been under severe mental stress, fearing that our names would be deleted from the revised electoral roll. He could not eat anything last night because of anxiety. This morning, he did not wake up,” said Ariful Sheikh, one of the sons.

As Sariful did not respond, a doctor was called to the house, who pronounced him dead.

Monirul, his younger son, also attributed his father’s death to anxiety triggered by the notice for a hearing in connection with the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) of the electoral roll.

He said in the 2002 voter list, the name of their father appeared only as Sariful, while his full name, Sariful Sheikh, is recorded in all other official documents of the sons.

“In the enumeration forms, both my brother and I mentioned our father’s name as Sariful Sheikh. We believe this minor discrepancy led to the hearing notice, which frightened our father,” the younger son added.

Later on Tuesday, the family conducted the last rites, and then, the brothers attended the hearing that was scheduled today.

AH2 blocked

Over 100 Trinamool Congress supporters blocked Asian Highway (AH) 2 at Tinbatti More in Siliguri on Thursday, alleging harassment in the name of the special intensive revision (SIR).

Traffic on the route came to a halt because of the one-hour blockade that started at 12 noon. Trinamool leaders in the Dabgram-Fulbari block led the protest.

Additional reporting by our Siliguri Correspondent