A 21-year-old migrant labourer from Bengal’s Murshidabad was fatally beaten up by a group of six youths on Wednesday night at Sambalpur town in western Odisha.
The accused, who are also labourers from Sambalpur town, were arrested by police on Thursday morning.
The deceased, Juel Sheikh aka Juel Rana, had been working as a mason in Sambalpur for six years.
Juel, who hails from Suti-I block in Murshidabad, returned to Sambalpur some days ago after taking a short break from his native village.
Sources said Juel was having a smoke at a tea stall along with two of his friends — also youths from the minority community in Bengal — at the town’s Shantinagar Palli around 10pm after work when a group of six labourers started demanding bidis and money from the trio.
When Juel and his friends refused to give either, the group of labourers, who were reportedly from Sambalpur town, aggressively asked them to show their Aadhaar cards, which led to a heated argument.
The group of six attacked Juel and his friends in a fit of anger with whatever they could find lying around.
Juel, who was hit hard on his head with a wooden plank, collapsed on the ground, bleeding. One of his friends fractured his leg.
Juel was rushed to the Mudulipada health centre by some bystanders, where
he died.
Subdivisional police officer (SDPO), Sambalpur, Tophan Bag said: “The murder was the outcome of a sudden provocation. A group of six people asked the youths (from Bengal) for bidis and later to show their Aadhaar cards. On refusal, the group attacked them (Juel and his friends). Juel succumbed to his injuries. We have arrested all the accused involved in the crime. All are labourers.”
The SDPO also made it clear that there was no political angle to the incident.
“There is no politics behind it. Both sides involved in the incident are labourers, although they had never spoken to one another. We are trying to find out if there was any other motive behind the attack,” said the SDPO.
After the BJP-led Mohan Majhi government assumed power in June 2024, attacks on minorities have increased in Bengal’s neighbouring state, many observers noted.
Sources said that Odisha had been witnessing an atmosphere of fear and distrust, especially since summer this year, with the police launching multiple drives to detect the illegal migrant workers from Bangladesh. Many Bengali Muslim migrant workers were branded infiltrators.
In July, Odisha detained 448 people, suspecting them to be Bangladeshi infiltrators and Rohingya refugees. Around 444 people were detained in Jharsuguda and the adjoining Sambalpur district.
Citu Odisha unit president Janardan Pati said: “Such heinous crimes are being committed in BJP-ruled states. Since 2014, incidents of hate crimes against minorities have been on the rise. The police and administration are not strict in dealing with such attacks. Even ministers are encouraging and spreading hate messages. This has become a challenge to our democratic ethos. The state government must stop these atrocities and give exemplary punishment to culprits.”
On Monday, ahead of Christmas, street vendors in Puri were bullied and harassed for selling Santa caps and pictures of Santa Claus.
In November, Rahul Islam, 24, a hawker from Murshidabad in Bengal, was branded as a Bangladeshi and beaten up by a mob in Odisha’s Ganjam district for refusing to chant “Jai Shri Ram”. As the mob threatened to set him on fire, Rahul gave in to his tormentors. However, the police failed to initiate any action against the culprits. No FIR was filed.
In October, two Muslim youths were allegedly beaten up and paraded in public with saffron flags emblazoned with Lord Hanuman’s images at Khuntuni, about 26km from Cuttack. A widely circulated video of the incident showed Right-wing activists forcing two youths to chant “Jai Shri Ram”.
