Malayali youth beaten to death in Bengal over suspicion of theft, minors among arrested

KOLKATA: A Malayali youth was tied up and beaten to death on the suspicion of being a thief. The shocking incident happened at South 24 Parganas district’s Kultali area in West Bengal. Seven have ben detained and two among them are minors. The police have registered the arrest of five.

The incident happened on June 9. The police came to know about this on Saturday via social media. Subsequently, a case was registered and seven, including two minors, were detained yesterday. A total of eight people were arrested in the incident. One was later released. All the accused will be produced in the court today.

The 30-year-old Malayali youth had come to work at an acquaintance's house in Kultali. On the morning of June 9, he went to a nearby market and got lost in another place. The youth did not know Bengali. Seeing the youth in the area, the locals stopped him and asked for his identity proof. Since he did not understand the language, he could not provide it. With this, people tied him to a tree and beat him up suspecting him to be a thief.

On receiving information that a person was found lying injured on the road, the Kultali police reached the spot and took him to Jaynagar-Kulthi Hospital. However, the doctors declared him dead. The police were not aware that he had died due to the beating. It was later revealed that it was mob lynching after receiving footage on social media. The police are conducting a detailed investigation into the incident. They need to get information about the dead.