It was a bittersweet moment for this family as members vacillated between happiness and sadness at the same time on Thursday, even as it was only sadness for the other family involved. A pall of gloom descended on Nandita Das’ family after they learnt that her groom, Jaydeb Ghosh, 42, died under mysterious circumstances in his house at Dabgram in Siliguri early morning on Thursday, hours before he and Nandita were supposed to tie the nuptial knot.
The news came as a rude shock for the family. However, another piece of news soon brought smiles in the faces of members of the Das family when one Pradip Dam came to the rescue and offered to marry Nandita.
The marriage ceremony for Nandita and Jaydeb had been fixed around three months ago, and everything was all good, while preparations were going on in full swing for the big day on Thursday, until the hanging body of Ghosh was recovered from the balcony near his room.
“We did not find anything unnatural in his death. All pre-wedding rituals and programmes had gone well. We failed to understand how the incident occurred. We found him hanging at the balcony,” said Toton Ghosh, the brother of Jaydeb, who owned a grocery shop.
Police reached the site and sent the body for post-mortem. As news spread and celebrations at the Das’ turned into mourning, a resident of Dabgram, one Gopu Sarkar, came to know about the incident through WhatsApp.
“I felt very sad and I immediately informed one of my relatives, Pradip Dam, about it and he came forward for the marriage,” Mr Sarkar said. Nandita, meanwhile, said she had lost hopes and saw her “life ended” when she came to know that her would-be husband was no more. Her mother, Kalpana Das, said it was like a miracle. “The news shattered us, but Pradip really came as a pleasant surprise and miracle,” Mrs Das said.