Trinamool Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee said on Friday that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) should take proactive steps to ensure that people involved in the February 10 murder of a Bengali migrant worker in Pune were arrested and tried by a fast-track court.
Sukhen Mahato was killed on February 9 in Koregaon village under the jurisdiction of Pune’s Shikrapur police station.Local police officers on Thursday said Sukhen Mahato was employed at a local industrial unit and was drunk when he got into a quarrel with two men who killed him.
“A young man from Purulia district has been brutally murdered in BJP-ruled Maharashtra,” said Banerjee on Friday.
“I expect BJP’s Purulia Lok Sabha member Jyotirmay Singh Mahato to talk with the Maharashtra chief minister and Union home minister and ensure that all suspects are arrested. The trial must be a fast one,” Banerjee said after meeting the victim’s parents at their village.
Banerjee only underlined that crimes were only being reported against Bengali migrant workers in states ruled by the BJP.
“A TMC delegation will be sent to Maharashtra if no noticeable action is taken in a few days,” Banerjee added.
Sukhen’s father, Dhiren Mahato, said he was scared about the future of his two other sons, who, too, work in Pune. “I want them to return and work here. I urge the state government to do something for them,” he told reporters after Banerjee left.
Jyotirmay Singh Mahato, the BJP MP who has twice been elected from the Purulia Lok Sabha seat, said he contacted the Maharashtra government immediately after the incident came to light.
“The Maharashtra police have already identified the suspects and taken action. All people involved in this will be punished. The BJP government will not spare anyone. What people of Bengal should be concerned about is the fact that they have to go to other states for livelihood,” the BJP MP said.
TMC chief and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee flagged the murder on Thursday, alleging that the 24-year-old migrant worker was killed because he was a Bengali. “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 said.
The Pune police, however, insisted that the murder did not have anything to do with the victim’s identity.
Police said they have detained two people, including a minor, in connection with the case.
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