Malayali Youth Beaten to Death in West Bengal on Suspicion of Theft; Five Arrested
A 30-year-old Malayali youth was brutally beaten to death by a mob in West Bengal’s South 24 Parganas district after being suspected of being a thief. The tragic incident took place in the Kulthali area on Saturday, June 1. Following the circulation of assault videos on social media, the local police registered a case and arrested five individuals, while detaining two minors in connection with the mob lynching.
The victim had recently arrived in Kulthali to work at an acquaintance’s house. On the morning of June 1, he went to a nearby market but lost his way and ended up in an unfamiliar neighborhood. Since he did not know the Bengali language, he was unable to communicate or present his identification documents when questioned by local residents. Suspecting him to be a thief due to the language barrier, the locals tied him to a tree and severely assaulted him.
Upon receiving information about an injured man lying on the road, the Kulthali police rushed him to the Jaynagar Kulthali hospital, where doctors declared him dead. The police initially did not know it was a case of mob lynching until video footage of the assault surfaced on social media. Out of the eight people initially detained, one was released, five have been formally arrested, and two minors have been detained. The police are currently conducting a detailed investigation, awaiting the post-mortem report, and trying to locate the victim’s co-workers to confirm his identity.
