A Marriage, A Death
Reader Rajendran Narayanan points me to news reports about the tragic death of his school and college friend Rizwanur Rahman, whose body was found beside the railway tracks in north Kolkata last week. Rizwanur, a computer graphics teacher from a middle-class background, had married Priyanka Todi, the daughter of an affluent Kolkata businessman, by registered marriage in August 2007. Priyanka’s family, who had apparently been opposed to the marriage, had filed a complaint with the police.
There has been a tremendous public outcry in Kolkata over the case, including the apparent intervention by some police officials in a legal marriage between adults. Among those who joined a silent protest march was eminent writer and activist Mahasweta Devi. Rizwanur’s family has apparently moved the High Court for an inquiry into the death; meanwhile, the West Bengal government ordered a CID probe as well as an inquiry by a retired High Court judge. Some of the several news reports about the case here, here, here, here, and here.
Rajendran Narayanan, who was Rizwanur’s classmate at St.Lawrence School and St. Xavier’s College, writes: “Rizwanur was my classmate for 8 years… it is quite difficult for me to brush the matter aside or be cynical about the impossibility of any action. I am optimistic about justice.”
