Woman’s death certificate issued by Bengal BJP candidate triggers row

The death certificate issued by the BJP’s North Dum Dum assembly candidate Dr Archana Majumdar mentioned internal injury as cause of death without any postmortem examination.

The death certificate of Shova Majumdar, an octogenarian woman and resident of the Nimta area of North 24 Parganas district, issued by a BJP candidate has triggered a political row ahead of the second phase of polling in West Bengal on April 1 in which chief minister Mamata Banerjee is the most prominent candidate.

The BJP has demanded that a murder case be registered immediately. (PTI)

Shova Majumdar was allegedly assaulted by some men, who the BJP claimed were TMC supporters, on February 27. She was admitted to a hospital on that day and released three days before she died on Monday.

The death certificate was signed by Archana Majumdar, a doctor who is also a BJP leader and a candidate in the Bengal assembly polls from the North Dum Dum assembly constituency in North 24 Parganas.

TMC Lok Sabha member Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, who is also a doctor, alleged that Majumdar violated medical ethics by writing the death certificate although she did not treat the alleged victim.

“Not only did she violate medical ethics and norms she also wrote that the cause of death was cardio-respiratory failure in an 80-year-old healthy lady. How can the BJP allege that the woman was fatally wounded while the death certificate says she was healthy?” said Ghosh Dastidar.

HT has seen a copy of the death certificate. While the document says the deceased was a “healthy lady” it mentions “severe internal hemorrhage, internal injury, head injury, face injury and trauma” caused “one month back” as “cause of death.”

The official stamp below Dr Majumdar’s signature mentions her West Bengal Medical Council registration number. It also mentions that she is the BJP candidate from Dum Dum North (constituency no 110).

Dr Shantanu Sen, Rajya Sabha member of the TMC and former national president of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) said, “No doctor can cite internal injuries and hemorrhage as cause of death without a postmortem examination. Also, the doctor’s political identity cannot be mentioned in a death certificate. We will urge the West Bengal chapter of the IMA to take this up.”

HT could not contact Dr Majumdar despite several attempts, but her party colleagues confirmed that she did mention several injuries as the cause of death.

“The death certificate mentions marks of injury and internal hemorrhage. Dr Majumdar and I went to the Nimta Police station and demanded that a murder case be registered immediately. We will also write to the Election Commission of India (ECI) to bring the matter to the attention of Vivek Dubey, the special police observer of the ECI,” Bengal BJP general secretary Sayantan Basu told HT.

Basu said the last rites of the octogenarian were performed on Monday afternoon and no postmortem examination was conducted. A team of the Bengal BJP’s women’s front moved governor Jagdeep Dhankhar in the evening and demanded that charges of assault be altered to that of murder and the case be tried by a fast-track court.

Significantly, there were discrepancies in the age of the deceased in different documents. While the death certificate said she was born on January 1, 1941, which made her 80 years old, the BJP’s letter to the governor and statements made by BJP leaders claimed she was 85.

The BJP also did not clarify what was mentioned in the diagnosis report when the woman was discharged from hospital. No party leader asked why she was discharged if she had fatal internal injuries as claimed.

Last month, the BJP accused the TMC of carrying out the attack because her son is a party supporter. A photograph of the woman with her face swollen was widely circulated by the BJP in posters and social media posts.

On Monday, Union home minister Amit Shah, BJP national president J P Nadda and other top leaders took to social media to corner the chief minister whose main election slogan says Bengal wants its daughter. BJP workers staged an agitation outside Nimta police station, demanding arrest of the accused men.

Banerjee faces her former cabinet colleague Suvendu Adhikari, the BJP’s most high-profile candidate in the Bengal polls, at Nandigram in East Midnapore district where polls will be held on April 1. Banerjee was busy holding roadshows and rallies in Nandigram when the BJP started the agitation over Majumdar’s death.

“Anguished over the demise of Bengal’s daughter Shova Majumdar ji, who was brutally beaten by TMC goons. The pain & wounds of her family will haunt Mamata didi for long. Bengal will fight for a violence-free tomorrow, Bengal will fight for a safer state for our sisters & mothers,” tweeted Shah.

“Every death is tragic. However, the ‘tourist gang’s’ attempt to malign #Bengal and politicise the death of an 85-year-old woman is despicable. Death has nothing to do with politics. BJP leader giving gyan about #WomenSafety. What is their own track record? Take a look,” tweeted TMC’s leader in the Rajya Sabha, Derek O’Brien, attaching some data on crime against women in BJP-ruled states.

Officers of the Nimta police station refused to comment.

In February, the BJP said the woman was the mother of Gopal Majumdar, a local party worker, who was attacked by TMC supporters. The woman, who lived with her son, was also assaulted, the BJP alleged and posted her photographs and videos on social media.

In one of these videos, the woman could be heard telling a news channel that TMC supporters barged into her house and assaulted her and her son. She said that she could not identify the assaulters. “They told me not to disclose who did this,” the woman said.

The TMC leadership alleged after the incident that the BJP was spreading fake news to gain political mileage before the assembly elections. Education minister Partha Chatterjee said in a tweet that the woman was a victim of family feud. He also tweeted a video in which a man who identified himself as Gobinda Majumdar, the grandson of the woman, was seen talking to another news channel.

“There is no truth in this. My grandmother is bedridden for three years. When I heard about the alleged assault I went to her house. I asked her how can the TMC be dragged into an internal feud of the BJP. Nobody assaulted my grandmother,” he said.

HT could not independently verify the veracity of these videos.