Welcome to Benagram, popular as ‘the haunted village’ in the surrounding areas. Situated off GT Road on the way from Niyamatpur in West Burdwan to Rupnarayanpur, this little hamlet was once home to a population of about 200. Most of the houses are made of concrete, rather than mud, and signs of past prosperity are evident. Records show that most of the former residents were either salaried professionals or engaged in business.

And yet they have stayed away for the last 15 years or so, living scattered lives, ostensibly because their village is ‘haunted’. Never mind the concrete road built by the Asansol-Durgapur Development Authority, or the electricity poles waiting to be activated as soon as there’s someone to consume that electricity, or the Asansol-Dhanbad rail tracks going right past the village. During an election, polling booths are set up in adjoining Deidi village.

Once a year though, on the day of Lakshmi Puja in October, life returns to Benagram, and the residents return for a look at their crumbling homes. The slightly eerie Lakshmi temple is in keeping with the rest of the ambience, but it is at least maintained after a fashion.

So are the ghost stories real? Where did they come from anyway? One possible source could be growing criminal activity in the region, which would lead to bodies of those killed in inter-gang battles being dumped along the rail tracks adjoining the village. Things reached a point where the police always seemed to be hanging around, asking questions about yet another body found by the tracks. Besides, wagon breakers had also begun favouring this section of the tracks for their operations, which was understandably hazardous for the villagers.