Sainbari incident

A newspaper report puts the date of the incident as 17 March 1970. The Sain brothers were members of a family with strong allegiance towards the Indian National Congress. Two brothers of the family, Pranab Kumar Sain and Malay Kumar Sain, were hacked to death in front of the family members.

A private tutor, Jitendranath Rai, who had come to teach the kids in the family was hacked to death as well. Later, the mother of the sain brothers was forced to eat rice smeared with the blood of her dead sons. Words cannot ever capture the horror that transpired in Sainbari that day.

One of the daughter-in-laws of the family, Rekha Rani, now around 75 years old, recounted the horrors of the incident in an interview with Indian Express. She said, “My brothers-in-laws Pranab Kumar Sain and Malay Kumar Sain and Jitendranath Rai, a private tutor who had come to teach the kids, were hacked in front of my eyes. I was 26. It all began at 7.30 am… people stared pelting stones on our house. Later, they set it on fire.”

“My mother-in-law, Mrignayana Devi, tried to stop the attackers but she was hit on her head. Two attackers mixed Pranab and Malay’s blood with rice and forced it into her mouth… She was taken to the hospital… she survived,” she added.

Not many people are aware of the Sainbari incident. Even those who are only remember the horror of a mother who was forced to eat rice smeared with the blood of her dead sons. The atrocity in itself was so huge that it eclipsed other acts of monstrosity that occurred on the 17th of March, 1970. Indira Gandhi, then Prime Minister of India, had visited the house in the heart of Bardhaman town to console the bereaved.[4]