Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday morning expressed shock and anger at what she called the murder in Maharashtra’s Pune of a man from Bengal’s Purulia district.
Sukhen Mahato, 24, a resident of Tumrasol village in the Barabazar area of Purulia, was working as a labourer in Pune.
"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," Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee wrote on X (formerly Twitter) on Thursday morning.
Calling it a targeted killing, she alleged it was motivated by hatred.
"This is nothing short of a hate crime. A young man was hunted, tortured, and murdered for his language, his identity, his roots. This is the direct consequence of a climate where xenophobia is weaponised and innocents are turned into targets."
She demanded swift action against those responsible and assured support to the victim’s family.
"I demand immediate arrests and exemplary punishment of the perpetrators. And 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."
The chief minister also shared video footage purportedly showing the blood-drenched body of the victim.
After Mamata's claim, Pune rural police said he was killed by two persons with whom he entered into an argument in a drunken state.
They said there was no other angle to the incident, which occurred on February 9 late evening in Koregaon under the Shikrapur police station limits, they said.
"As per the preliminary information, the deceased Mahto 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," said inspector Dipratan Gaikwad of Shikrapur police station.
It is learnt that in the drunken state, he picked up a spat with two persons, he said.
"Our primary probe suggests that following the spat, he was allegedly murdered by the two persons. We have CCTV footage in which the deceased is seen to be in unstable condition and arguing with two persons. The actual assault did not get captured in the CCTV. However, he was allegedly found murdered using a sharp weapon nearby," Gaikwad said.
The probe suggests that the murder is a fallout of some dispute that took place in the drunken state and there is no other angle to it, the official said.
"We have registered an offence and a search for the assailants is on," he said.
The incident has added fuel to an already heated political climate in Bengal ahead of Assembly elections later this year. The Trinamool has steadfastly accused the BJP of fomenting hatred against Bengali-speakers and labelling them as illegal Bangladeshi immigrants.
On Monday, BJP leader Dilip Ghosh accused the Trinamool government of failing to protect Hindus in the state, alleging a rise in atrocities against women and attacks on Opposition workers.
"The kind of incidents happening in Bengal today, the atrocities against women, the attacks on workers of opposition parties, and when we hold our programs, the police take down our flags. The police and goons are working together to do this. The Hindu community is being pushed into this situation," Ghosh told reporters in Kolkata.
