Basirhat: Family of minor who shared offensive FB post reveals how life changed after communal violence

In a new development, the West Bengal police believe that the class XI student, who allegedly shared a picture on Facebook that resulted in communal tension in North 24 Parganas’ Baduria area, is innocent.

Police on August 11 said that they believe an acquaintance of the youth, who introduced him to the social networking site, used his password to log-in and shared the controversial post.

The post had created outrage and resulted in communal tension in the region. The residence of the youth’s uncle had been vandalised and family members had been displaced and compelled to live in other parts of the town.

Meanwhile, the youth’s cousin, a postgraduate student, spoke to DNA about how her life changed since the incident.

The house after it was vandalises - Arshad Ali (DNA Photo)

“It has shaken us up. I still wake up in the middle of the night at the slightest sound. I haven’t met my father since July 4, as I have been living elsewhere. I get to see my mother sometimes,” she said.

The lady said that the incident has affected her academically. “I had submitted my forms and required fee for my examinations, but could not submit my testimonials physically, as my degrees had been burnt on that night,” she said, adding she hoped the Mamata Banerjee-led state government would help her and her family settle down and ensure that she doesn’t lose an academic year.

Recalling that night, the lady remembers how thousands of people came hunting for her cousin. “There were people who wanted to lynch him. We didn’t know that he had escaped from the back door,” she said.

Later, the mob attacked the Baduria police station. While all the cops managed to escape, the girl’s father, who the mob was looking for, had hidden himself in one of the rooms in the first floor of the station. “He had called my mother, requesting her to take care of my brother and me as he thought he would be killed. It’s a miracle that the mob didn’t find him that night,” she recalls.

The family now is too afraid to return to the area. “Their house was vandalised in the presence of police; they are afraid. How will the damage be undone even if the boy is innocent?” said a family member while speaking to DNA.

Adding that he didn’t trust the state government, he hoped that the Centre would do something for the boy. “If the Narendra Modi-led centre takes responsibility, then our boy will survive. If he returns home, we are sure that he will be lynched. The state government doesn’t have enough manpower to guard the boy, and he isn’t a VVIP to have that sort of security,” the family member added.