Boy hangs himself after moral cops harass him for studying with girl

CHAKDAH (WB): A teenager hanged himself in Nadia Saturday a few hours after vigilantes from a nearby club dragged him and a schoolmate out of his home in daylight, extracted a "written confession" that they had indulged in immoral activities and "fined" him Rs 10,000. Rajendra Kumar Roy, 19, who passed Madhyamik in 2012 with a first division, was at his home with a Class XII girl who wanted to consult the senior from her school on study material. Rajendra's mother and elder sister - a postgraduate student at Kalyani University - were not at home then, which prompted a neighbour to inform the club that a boy and a girl were indulging in immoral activities.

Around 2.30pm, nearly a dozen members of the local New Star Club burst into Rajendra's home at Hingnara in Chakdah, about 60km from Krishnagar town. Hingnara is a village but most residents are traders or they work in the private sector.

Residents said boys and girls going to each other's homes for exchanging study material was not unusual there. The girl's mother, who works as a cook, on Sunday said she had known Rajendra's family for years. "My daughter went there to study often. Rajendra was a very good boy," she said. The assistant headmaster of the school, Manotosh Mukherjee, said Rajendra had done well in Madhyamik in 2012. He took up science for higher secondary but realised in Class XII that it was too tough for him. He wanted to shift to arts, Mukherjee said. The school had by then sent his details to the HS board for higher secondary exam registration. The board rejected Rajendra's appeal for a stream change, the teacher said. An HS board official said on Sunday that such a change of stream is allowed to a student in exceptional circumstances. He said usually schools advise students to change stream if they want to before their documents are sent for registration for the exam. When Rajendra realised he would not be allowed to appear for HS as an arts student, he stopped attending school six months ago, Mukherjee said. It is unclear what he did after that. The 18-year-old girl recounted that the club members - one of them was a former classmate - dragged them to the club where they were "abused and threatened". "Although we tried to reason with them that we were just discussing study material, they kept insisting that we had indulged in immoral activities when nobody was at Rajendra's home," she said. "They gave us a sheet of paper and asked us to write that we indulged in immoral activities. They video-recorded the conversation between them and us. Then they asked Rajendra to pay a fine of Rs 10,000 and threatened to make the matter public if he failed. Scared, Rajendra went back home to fetch Rs 4,000, which his mother keeps for monthly expenses, and promised to give another Rs 6,000 within a week," she said. "Rajendra was depressed after going through such an ordeal. He kept telling me that he was unable to bear the humiliation for no fault of ours," the girl added. Both were kept at the club for several hours and were let off around 6pm. Since the boy appeared disturbed, the girl accompanied him to his home and left around 6.30pm. While leaving, she forgot to take her dupatta as she was too shaken, the girl said. It was with this dupatta that Rajendra hanged himself. Rajendra's mother and sister returned home soon after and found the doors closed. Through the window, they saw the boy hanging from the ceiling. "A young life was snuffed out for no fault of his. I want severe punishment for all the FIR-named persons, including the club members and our neighbour Bukul Biswas," Jharna, Rajendra's mother, said. Rajendra's father is based in Mumbai, where he works as a labour supplier in a construction company. In the complaint, Rajendra's sister has named eight youths - one of them the dropout who used to study with the girl till Class X - and the neighbour, Bukul. The neighbour has fled her home. Some neighbours said Bukul's relations with the Roy family were not good. The Roys had worked hard to educate their children, which apparently was resented by some neighbours like Bukul. Kalyani sub-divisional police officer K. Acharya said a suspect identified as Chandan Biswas had been detained for questioning. The others are absconding. Chandan, 27, said at the police station that they had stormed Rajendra's home after Bukul informed them of "immoral activities" going on in the boy's home. Chandan, who denied being a member of the club, conceded that both Rajendra and the girl were "subjected to mental torture". Asked why he did not protest, he kept silent. -The Telegraph Calcutta