A 19-year-old labourer from West Bengal’s Murshidabad was lynched in Odisha’s Sambalpur district on Wednesday night. Police have arrested six accused in connection with the incident.
The victim, Jewel Sheikh, hailed from Chakbahadurpur village under Suti police station limits and was working in Odisha. His co-workers and family members alleged he was assaulted on suspicion of being an illegal Bangladeshi immigrant. Odisha police, however, denied this and claimed the victim and the accused knew each other.
According to police, the incident occurred in the Shantinagar area late Wednesday evening when Jewel was returning from work.
“We were at a tea stall. A group of people asked for a bidi from Jewel. Then they started asking for Aadhaar cards and wanted to know where we were from. We showed our Aadhaar cards. Suddenly, the group, armed with bamboo sticks, started beating us. Jewel was hit on the head. Some others were injured,” alleged Paltu Sheikh, one of the eight construction workers from Murshidabad working in Odisha.
“We rushed him to a hospital, where doctors declared him dead. We are now waiting for the post-mortem to be completed, and then we will take the body home. I have worked in Odisha for 12 years. This is the first time we faced such an incident,” Sheikh said.
This story was originally published in indianexpress.com. Read the full story here.