Rizwanur Rahman

Rizwanur Rahman (1977 – 21 September 2007) was a 30 year-old computer graphics trainer who was driven into committing suicide according to the Central Bureau of Investigation.

Rizwanur Rahman, a middle-class man, met the 23-year-old Priyanka Todi, daughter of Ashok Todi, owner of Lux Cozi, at the graphics training school where he taught.

They began an affair, which was kept secret from their families.

It is believed that on 18 August 2007, the two secretly married according to the Special Marriage Act to which a few close friends and colleagues of Rizwanur were witnesses.

The two families were not informed about the marriage and no witnesses were declared in the case later on.

After the ceremony, Priyanka went back to the Todi family, and Rizwanur continued his work at the multi-media centre.

In late August, Rizwanur Rahman approached his brother and confessed to having secretly married.

On 31 August, he brought Priyanka home to his family's small apartment in a working class Muslim neighbourhood.

He and Priyanka signed and sent a letter to the police asking for protection from her father.

Later, Priyanka would say: "My mind was a blank... I was just signing whatever letters Rizwan was telling me to sign. I once told him we shouldn’t mention my father, but he said Pappu and Rukbanur had insisted that we frame the letters like that and they knew best."

It is alleged that Priyanka's father, Ashok Todi, and the Todi family were displeased that Priyanka had married into a lower income family, and Rahman, being a Muslim, exacerbated their displeasure.

It has also been alleged that Rahman was told to "remove himself" from Priyanka's life and was also threatened by various fronts for this inter-religious marriage.

On 31 August, Priyanka and Rahman notified the authorities that they were staying together at Rahman's house.

It has been alleged that due to an understanding with the Todi family, top level police officers of the state summoned the couple several times to State Police Headquarters at Lalbazar, Kolkata, and threatened Rizwan of dire consequences if he did not separate from his wife.

Rizwan refused to yield.

This is an unsubstantiated allegation levelled against the police force, not against Priyanka's parents, and there is nothing in official records to indicate that any such thing happened.

What is on record is a meeting held at the police station on 8 September, eight days after Rahman's marriage was certified.

On this occasion, the police summoned Rizwan and strongly urged him to allow his wife to visit her parents for a week or so.

They told him that he was liable to be arrested on various charges, including abduction and illegal confinement, if his wife remained confined inside his tiny, rundown house; also that there was a minor charge against him of stealing a cell phone and other items from the Todi mansion, He was told that the girl, Priyanka, had never spoken to her parents properly after disappearing from the house one fine day, and that the parents were totally aghast and bewildered.

Rizwan was always present when Priyanka spoke to her parents, and because of his presence, the conversations were necessarily stilted and stifled, with no mutual understanding in sight.

Also, Priyanka was speaking only in very brief sentences, monosyllables, yes-no answers and low voice to her parents.

It was suspected that she was under pressure from Rizwan; perhaps she was scared of him and his family, perhaps she was unable to speak frankly and clearly to her parents.

The police therefore strongly felt that Priyanka should return to her parental house for a week or so, during which time she could speak clearly to her parents and explain what had happened, and also convince them that she was happy.

Rahman continued for a long time to resist the arguments of the police.

He finally agreed to let Priyanka visit her parents, but only after he had obtained a signed document stating that she would return to him after a week.

One of Priyanka's uncles, who was present at the police headquarters, signed an agreement on plain paper in front of a police witness that Priyanka would be sent back to Rahman's house after 7 days, on 15 September.

After all this was done, and on the same day (08 Sept), Priyanka returned to the house of her parents.

At her father's house, Priyanka Todi spoke to Rahman for the last time on 11 September.

On 15 September, Rahman tried calling Priyanka but was refused permission to speak to her by her parents.

On 18 September, a witness to their marriage was threatened with arrest by the police for "forcing Priyanka into marriage".

On 19 September, Priyanka, still not sent back, Rahman filed a case with an NGO, documenting police harassment.

According to his diary and conversations with close friends, he was also planning further legal moves to get his wife back.

In a letter allegedly written by Rahman to an NGO before his death, he stated that he was ready to convert to Hinduism in exchange for a peaceful married life.

Rahman died in the afternoon of 21 September, about 2 weeks after his wife was separated from him.

His body was found lying beside a railway line, with hands folded over his chest and a deep wound on the back of his head.

After his death, Priyanka met a state Women's Commission delegation and told them that: "There was no police pressure on me" and that "no police officer ill-treated me".

Finally a CBI probe has judged that he had committed suicide and they plan to charge Mr Todi with abetment of suicide.

Even before the post-mortem results were released, the then Police Commissioner, Prasun Mukherjee, brushed aside the death of Rahman as a "simple case of suicide".

He added that cases of eloping, even by adults, were unacceptable morally.

So the police had always intervened in such cases in the past, and would continue to do so in the future.