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`Dhananjoy syndrome' spreads

By Our Special Correspondent

KOLKATA, AUG. 24. Since the August 14 hanging of Dhananjoy Chatterjee, the rape and murder convict, in the Alipore Central Jail here, West Bengal is in the grip of a "Dhananjoy syndrome."

Already, the syndrome has claimed two lives, with the latest coming to light today. On August 21, Samiran Tewari, 14, died while enacting the hanging of Dhananjoy in Shukrola village in Midnapore district, 170 km from here. Around 10.30 a.m., Samiran, a Class VII student, hanged himself with a cycle tube. His sister Ruma was away in school while his mother was busy with household chores. She discovered his body after an hour.

On August 20, Malakar, 12, suffocated to death when he tried to enact Dhananjoy's hanging at his home in Ranaghat in Nadia district. A class III student, Manti died even as his five-year-old brother Bittu watched in horror. Their parents were away at work. Manti had watched a documentary on television on death-row convicts which included snippets about Dhananjoy's hanging.

Brush with death

A series of incidents has also come to light about teenaged boys and girls, mostly in the districts, having had a close shave with death in the last few days while enacting the hanging.

On Friday, Anjan Sahu, a Class III student of a primary school in Shukrola in Midnapore was saved when the rope with which he was hanged, gave way. His friends had staged a mock hanging inside the classroom.

The same day, in the adjacent Kishtopur village, a boy nearly choked to death when his friends tried to `hang' him.

Two days ago, 12-year-old Sheikh Aslam Khan also almost choked to death when his friend, after a mock trial, hanged him from a tree in a village in Bishnupur in South 24-Parganas. He was saved by his other friends who rushed him to a local health centre.

Deification bid

Administration officials said police have been alerted about this syndrome. Reports from Kuldihi, Dhananjoy's native village in Bankura district said that a large section of villagers, with the concurrence of the convict's family, has initiated a move to install a statue of Dhananjoy who, in its eyes, died a martyr, a victim "of the pro-rich justice system."

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