Policemen beat Samajwadi Party activists protesting the murder of Dharam Dev Rai in Allahabad on Thursday. (PTI)

Mumbai, Oct. 30: Amid mounting political pressure from the heartland to stem the attacks on north Indians, police today arrested six persons for allegedly beating to death a migrant labourer on a local train but insisted the incident was not a hate crime.

The police complaint filed by companions of Dharam Dev Rai, a 25-year-old worker from Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh, said he lost his life when a group of around a dozen Marathi-speaking commuters questioned his north Indian origins, hurled abuses and kicked and punched him on Tuesday afternoon.

Rai was travelling to his hometown for Chhat puja along with two of his relatives and a friend. They were to board the Kushinagar Express from Lokmanya Tilak Terminus at Kurla later that evening. Rai worked in a steel factory at Khopoli, about 111km from Mumbai, in Thane district.

The arrested six were identified as Vikas Waghmare, 26, Manoj Palande, 30, Avinash Dhomre, 24, Ajay Hadap, 18, Sanjay Hadap, 18, and Ketan Hadap, 23. All are residents of Khalapur village near Khopoli.

The railway police have slapped murder charges on the six on the basis of sketches prepared by Rai’s relatives — Virendra Rai and Satyaprakash Rai — and friend Shivkumar Verma. A hunt is on for six other accomplices.

“The murder was not pre-planned. It happened on the spur of the moment. I can say this issue was not a result of regionalism,” additional director-general of police (railways) K.P. Raghuvanshi said.

The post-mortem revealed Rai’s liver ruptured as a result of injuries sustained from the beating. “It was an unfortunate incident triggered off by an altercation between the two groups for space and placement of luggage on the local train,” the officer said.

Raghuvanshi reiterated the murder could not be described as a hate crime against north Indian migrants, echoing what Maharashtra home minister R.R. Patil had said yesterday.

The officer also said the accused were not affiliated to any political party or outfit, and did not shout any slogans when they attacked Rai and his companions.

“Some are students, some are farmers and some employed locally. But none of them has any links with Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS),” said Raghuvanshi.

Chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, who was in Nanded with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the tercentenary celebrations of the consecration of Guru Granth Sahib, tried to calm frayed nerves. “The situation in the state is under total control and adequate measures have been taken to ensure law and order,” he said.

Deshmukh’s assertion and also that of the police that the train killing does not have any connection with Raj’s MNS is unlikely to cut much ice with heartland politicians who have bared fangs at the migrant-baiter and at the Congress-led regime.

Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayavati demanded the dismissal of Deshmukh’s government as it had “failed to check attacks on north Indians who have gone there to earn a livelihood”.

She today refused to join a multi-party delegation to Delhi to lobby against the Maharashtra government.

Asked how she would respond to Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh’s plan to lead a joint political delegation to the Prime Minister, Mayavati said: “What is that? I have not been informed of any such delegation.”

“Why don’t you ask him to give me his plan in writing?” she asked