Family alleges NRC fear behind elderly man’s death in Kolkata

A 63-year-old man died in Kolkata on Sunday (August 3, 2025) morning, with his family claiming that he had been living in fear that he would be sent to Bangladesh if the National Register of Citizens (NRC) was implemented.

Dilip Kumar Saha, a non-teaching staff member at a private school in Dhakuria, south Kolkata, had arrived in Kolkata in 1972 from Nawabganj, Dhaka, and had been living in Anandapally, Regent Park area. The wife of Saha said that he used to watch television news and was concerned about implementation of NRC in the State.

“He has been under severe stress for quite some time regarding this…. He was afraid that he would be sent to a detention camp and then pushed back to Bangladesh, where he had nobody. He had a valid voter ID card and other documents,” Aarti Saha, wife of the deceased said.

There was concern about the implementation of the NRC in West Bengal before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, and a sense of panic spread among the people in the State, particularly when leaders of the BJP stated that the Citizenship (Amendment) Act would be followed by the NRC. West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chairperson Mamata Banerjee had in September 2019 said that six persons had died due to NRC-related fear in West Bengal. On March 11, 2024, the Union Home Ministry notified CAA rules, but the BJP dropped NRC from its manifesto for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

West Bengal Power Minister and local Trinamool Congress MLA Arup Biswas reached out of the family members of the deceased, said. “This is what the fear of being thrown out of the country could do to a man. What they (Centre) have started in the name of the SIR shows their anti-people attitude, and the result is in front of you,” Mr. Biswas said.

West Bengal’s ruling party raised the issue and said that the death was the BJP’s orchestrated campaign of fear and intimidation.

“Despite possessing valid documentation, Bengali-speaking citizens are being served NRC notices. Migrant workers are being arbitrarily labelled as foreigners,” the party posted on social media.