Kolkata: A day after minority community members in Bangladesh met the family of Dipu Das, the Hindu man who was lynched at Mymensingh, donations from India and countries across the world started pouring in for the impoverished family, now pushed to the brink after Das’s death. Among the benefactors are strangers from countries, including India, the US and Singapore.By Monday, minority community members in Bangladesh opened a bank account for the Dases after receiving queries from netizens on social media about how to provide financial help to the family. Donations started coming in by evening. “We have shared the bank account number on our social media handles with a plea to help the family. We are not keeping track of donations now. However, we heard that lakhs have already been donated from people across the world,” said Kushal Baran Chakraborty, a Sanskrit professor at Chittagong University. Chakraborty, along with other representatives from Bangladesh, met the family.
Chakraborty said he found the members emotionally shattered. “The family does not have the financial strength to survive even a week. Dipu was the sole earning member of the family. He worked in a garment manufacturing company and earned a meagre amount. But happy with his performance, his company promoted him. This enraged some colleagues. He was accused of spreading provocative messages on social media while he did not even have a smartphone,” said Chakraborty.Das’s family, which stays in a makeshift house behind a warehouse under Tarakandi Police Station in Mymensingh, was reportedly stopped from bringing his body home. “He got married a couple of years ago and has a small child. It will not be possible for the family to survive. We decided to open a bank account for the family first,” Chakraborty said.After the professor posted the interactions with the family members on Facebook, his social media handle was flooded with comments, condemning Dipu’s killing. On Monday morning, he posted a plea on Facebook, seeking financial assistance for the family. “Soon after, people started to send money to the account and shared the screenshots of the payment. We were overwhelmed,” said Chakraborty.
