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Forced To Write 'Confession' By Moral Police, Nadia Teen Hangs Himself With Woman Friend's Dupatta

Forced To Write 'Confession' By Moral Police, Nadia Teen Hangs Himself With Woman Friend's Dupatta
high contrast image of a habgman's noose
fergregory via Getty Images
high contrast image of a habgman's noose

A bright young life was snuffed out in West Bengal's Nadia district because a gang of locals, acting as moral police, publicly humiliated him and a woman friend studying together at his home. Rajendra Kumar Roy, 19, was dragged out of his home by the members of a local club on Sunday, forced to sign a "confession" that he and the woman were engaging in "immoral activities", and asked to pay a fine of Rs 10,000, according to a Telegraph report.

Roy and the woman were confined at the club house for several hours, their entire conversation recorded on camera, and let off only when he paid Rs 4000 and promised to pay Rs 6000 later. His 18-year-old woman friend accompanied him home because Roy seemed disturbed, according to the report. In her agitated state, she forgot to take her 'dupatta' when leaving for home, which the teen later used as a makeshift noose to hang himself.

According to the paper, Roy passed Madhyamik in 2012 with a first division but dropped out from school six months ago when the HS board for higher secondary exam registration refused his request for subject change from science to arts. The woman had come to his house for a study consultation.

Shockingly, one of the members of the New Star Club at Hingnara in Chakdah, who harassed the students, was her former classmate. About a dozen members threatened, blackmailed and abused the two after a neighbour complained to the club that "immoral activities" were going on at Roy's house while his mother and elder sister were out.

"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," the woman told the paper. "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," she said.

The woman's mother said Roy was "a very good boy" whom her daughter often consulted for help with studies.

Eight people are named in the FIR, Kalyani sub-divisional police officer K Acharya told the paper, adding that one Chandan Biswas has been detained. The others are absconding.

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