The Kerala Police have arrested two persons in the case pertaining to an incident of alleged lynching of a migrant worker from West Bengal at Anchal in Kollam on the false charge of stealing a chicken. This was the second such incident in Kerala in less than five months in the name of false theft charge.
Manik Roy (32), a migrant worker hailing from Malda in West Bengal, came under the attack of a gang — according to his own statement to the police — accusing him of stealing the chicken on the evening of June 24 reportedly in the presence of a crowd when he was returning home after buying a chicken from a nearby house.
Roy was then admitted to the Government hospital at Anchal. He died on Sunday as he was being taken to a Hospital in Thiruvananthapuram after he fell unconscious at his workplace. Doctors confirmed that he had died due to injuries suffered in the back of his neck in the attack and that his life could have been saved if he had received proper treatment at the right time.
Though the police had earlier registered a case for manhandling after Roy was attacked, they included the charge of murder after his death. Those arrested were Sasidhara Kurup and Asif, said to be a Youth Congress leader. The police said Kurup and Asif had admitted their crime and more persons could be named as accused in the case.
The gang led by Kurup and Asif brutally attacked Roy despite his repeated cries that the chicken was not stolen but he had bought it from a nearby house. Reports said that a crowd had assembled at the spot and many among them had encouraged the assailants. It is also said that there were no serious efforts to prevent the assailants from attacking the migrant worker.
The gang stopped assaulting Roy only after people of the house from where he had bought the chicken appeared on the scene and confirmed the worker’s claim. Roy had lost a lot of blood and had fallen unconscious by then and he was taken to a hospital in Anchal. However, he got discharged from the hospital and started working within a few days.
Roy collapsed unconscious at his workplace at about 10.00 am on Sunday. Though his colleagues took him to a private hospital in Anchal; life could not be saved. Roy had been working in Anchal for the past 12 years and he was staying there with his family. The body was taken to his native place in Malda for cremation.
The migrant worker had earlier told the police — who registered as case of murder after Roy died — that there were five men in the gang that had attacked him. Sources in the police said there could have been seven men in the gang.