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Kolkata, the city that has been an abode for people from different religions, witnessed a rude shock earlier this week when four medical students alleged that they were being harassed and forced by their neighbours to vacate their flat just because they were Muslims.
Aftab Alam, Mojtaba Hassan, Nasir Sheikh and Sawkat Sheikh – all in their 20s – hail from different districts of Bengal and work as house-staff at the Calcutta Medical College and Beliaghata ID hospital.
They alleged that they were the target of regular taunts by their neighbours since they rented the flat on the first-floor of Swapno Neer apartment at Kudghat locality in South Kolkata two months ago.
I had rented a flat around two months back in Kudghat. From the second or third day, our neighbour, a middle-aged man, started complaining about four bachelors residing in the building. The issue took a bad turn three-four days ago when he got to know that we are Muslims. He confronted us and told us that four Muslims cannot reside in the locality, saying that they cannot take the risk of something untoward happening.Aftab Alam, Victim
Aftab says that he was forced to come out in the open when a friend who had come to meet them was heckled by their neighbours on 31 July.
This neighbour along with a few others confronted and heckled a friend and asked him for his identity proof. That was very humiliating for us. As doctors, we don’t discriminate between patients based on their religion, caste or colour but we had to face discrimination today.Aftab Alam, Victim
He later posted on Facebook about his ordeal.
Members of Sanhati Abhijan, a civil society group, saw the post and decided to intervene and help the youth.
In this case, Aftab has posted about his ordeal on Facebook. One of my friends tagged me on the post and that is how I got to know. So we took up the case and went there the next day on 1 August. We spoke to the neighbours. The specific neighbour was not around so we spoke to his wife. But because of uproar on social media, the local community also realised that something happened that one should not be proud of and they stood by the four junior doctors who were harassed. As of now, the matter is resolved and they will be staying there.Dwaipayan Banerjee, Member, Sanhati Abhijan
The former landlady of the five-storey building who lives on the third floor, however, accused the youths of giving communal colour to a trivial issue.
This is a security-related issue. Since more women stay in this apartment, we asked them for their identity cards which they refused to submit and said they would submit the identity cards to the flat owner. We told them that since the flat owner does not stay here, we will submit their identity proofs to the police station. There is no communal angle to it.Former landlady
The neighbour who was allegedly involved in a confrontation with the youths refused to talk to The Quint. Locals claimed that he was terrified to come forward after the issue created an uproar and was highlighted in the media.
The new owner of the apartment has allowed the doctors to return to their flat. But whether they were evicted for communal hatred or over an identity card dispute remains unknown.
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