Kin cry for justice after Doon tragedy

DUM DUM/KALYANI: The last post by Moumita Das, a young artist, on Facebook seems ominous now. On October 18, she wrote ‘Are you dying?’ while sharing a post that went ‘dying to finish high school and start college/And then I was dying to finish college and start working/And then I was dying to marry and have children… And then I was dying to retire/ And now, I am dying, and suddenly I realise I forgot to live.”
Moumita, 25, and her friend Avijit Pal, 24, were allegedly murdered while vacationing in Uttarakhand on October 23.Her body is yet to be found. Late Tuesday, her family learnt of a woman’s body floating in a river near Tiger Falls. “A relative rushed to Dehradun this morning to see if it’s Moumita,” said her uncle Gopal Das. Uttarakhand sources, however, said this could be a rumour.
Avijit’s parents in Dum Dum could not see him one last time. Police cremated his body as an unidentified one. His cousin Jayanta Pal and friends Bubai and Bura were shown the photo of a decomposed body when they went looking for Moumita and Avijit. “They identified Avijit from his hair,” said friend Saptarshi Ghosh.
Avijit’s neighbourhood, Italgacha in Dum Dum, is shrouded in gloom. They called him Bapi. “I can’t imagine Bapi would be killed like this,” said Buddhadeb Chatterjee, a neighbour. “He was such a quiet lad, and well-behaved,” said uncle Nitai Charan Pal. Local club Sonali Shibir Sangha pasted leaflets in the locality mourning Avijit and demanding death for the killers.
Inside Avijit’s house, the stifling silence is broken by his mother crying out for her son. At Moumita’s house in Kalyani, her mother, too, is inconsolable. “Jhumpa loved art. She would often remind me to take good care of her paintings. Now, these paintings are all I have of her,” said mother Kajol. In Dum Dum, Avijit’s room is shut but his canvases and sketches lie strewn on the bed. The young artist had turned the walls of his home into a sketch board. “We can’t bear to look into his room. It’s very painful,” said father Atul Pal
Avijit’s mother recounted their last conversation: “He had called around 10.30pm on October 22. He said they had reached Chakrata. He sounded happy.” She wanted to speak to him on Kali Puja, but could not get through. “Moumita’s mother called to say she could speak to them,” she said. From October 23, both phones fell silent. On November 10, she learnt of their murder. “As long as they were missing, I clung to hope,” she said.
The families are angry with Uttarakhand police. “They are not helping. Moreover, they are threatening Avijit’s cousin and friends to switch off their phones and not speak to the media. The anguished mothers of Moumita and Avijit ask only one thing: the killers get death. “They should be hanged. If they walk free, they will again snatch away somebody’s child. This should never happen, never again,” said Avijit’s mother. Trinamool MLA Sujit Bose visited the Pal family on Wednesday and promised help.