Kolkata: A Bengali migrant worker was killed in Pune, Maharashtra, in what West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee described as a “barbaric murder” for speaking in Bengali.
Twenty-four-year-old Sukhen Dhiren Mahato was from the Bandwan village in Purulia district of West Bengal, Banerjee said in a post on X, adding that the killing “was nothing short of a hate crime.”
“I am shaken, enraged and sickened beyond words by the barbaric murder of Sukhen Mahato, a 24-year-old migrant worker from Bandwan in Purulia, the sole earning member of his family, in Pune, Maharashtra,” she said.
She also shared the video allegedly showing the victim’s body bloodied from the attack.
Victim killed after a drunken spat: Pune Police
After she claimed that Mahato was tortured, hunted and murdered for speaking in Bengali, Pune Rural Police stated that he was killed by two accused after he argued with them in a drunken state.
They said there was no other angle to the incident, which occurred late evening of February 9 in Koregaon under the Shikrapur Police Station limits.
“As per the preliminary information, the deceased Mahato works in a local industry. Before the incident, he left the house to go to work at 3 pm. But instead of going to work, he started roaming in Koregaon in a drunken state,” Inspector Dipratan Gaikwad told PTI.
In the drunken state, he got into a verbal spat with two people, the Inspector said.
“Our primary probe suggests that following the spat, he was allegedly murdered by the two persons. We have closed circuit television (CCTV) camera footage in which the deceased is seen to be in an unstable condition and arguing with two persons. The actual assault did not get captured on the CCTV,” Gaikwad said.
However, he was allegedly found murdered using a sharp weapon nearby.
“We have registered an offence and a search for the assailants is on,” he said.
Banerjee, however, said that Mahato was tortured for being Bengali and called the attack a result of a climate where xenophobia is weaponised.
“A young man was hunted, tortured, and murdered for his language, his identity, his roots,” she said. “This is the direct consequence of a climate where xenophobia is weaponised and innocents are turned into targets.”
She demanded the immediate arrest of the accused and offered support to the victim’s family. “To Sukhen’s family, I say that Bengal stands with you in this hour of unimaginable grief. No effort will be spared to secure justice,” she said.
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