Regional
Over 50 transgender voters in Bengal’s North Dinajpur
Kolkata:Consistent door-to-door surveys and contact with residents over the last three to four years has seen West Bengal’s North Dinajpur district clock in over 50 transgender voters in its electoral rolls for this year’s assembly polls — the highest in the state.
“Till January there were 50 and from January to March we registered two more members of the third gender. This is the highest in Bengal,” Pradip Kr. Das, officer-in-charge, election, North Dinajpur district, told IANS.
The district goes to the hustings in the second phase on April 17.
According to the Election Commission, Bengal has as many as 758 transgender voters. It is estimated around 30,000 members of the third gender live in Bengal.
In North Dinajpur, Das said out of nine assembly constituencies, Chopra has the maximum count of transgender voters at 18.
Das said to enlist as many transgenders as possible, officials of the district administration carried out intensive house-to-house surveys.
“We made sure no one was left out as we conducted these surveys. Over the last three to four years we have been consistent in our efforts. Still there are many who have enlisted as male or female,” Das said.
As for voter awareness campaigns, Das said no special drives were targeted towards the transgenders since it would have been discriminatory.
“We don’t want to differentiate so the awareness campaigns were uniform,” Das added.
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What monkey fled with a bag containing evidence in it: Read full story
The court, generally, considers a person who commit a crime and the one who destroys the evidence, as criminals in the eyes of law. But what if an animal destroys the evidence of a crime committed by a human.
In a peculiar incident in Rajasthan, a monkey fled away with the evidence collected by the police in a murder case. The stolen evidence included the murder weapon (a blood-stained knife).
The incident came to light when the police appeared before the court and they had to provide the evidence in the hearing.
The hearing was about the crime which took place in September 2016, in which a person named Shashikant Sharma died at a primary health center under Chandwaji police station. After the body was found, the deceased’s relatives blocked the Jaipur-Delhi highway, demanding an inquiry into the matter.
Following the investigation, the police had arrested Rahul Kandera and Mohanlal Kandera, residents of Chandwaji in relation to the murder. But, when the time came to produce the evidence related to the case, it was found that the police had no evidence with them because a monkey had stolen it from them.
In the court, the police said that the knife, which was the primary evidence, was also taken by the monkey. The cops informed that the evidence of the case was kept in a bag, which was being taken to the court.
The evidence bag contained the knife and 15 other important evidences. However, due to the lack of space in the malkhana, a bag full of evidence was kept under a tree, which led to the incident.