Fight over 'bidi' leads to Bengal worker's lynching in Odisha; attackers wanted to see his Aadhaar card

Sambalpur/ Kolkata: A group of six men allegedly sought a 'bidi' from migrant workers from West Bengal and then demanded to see their Aadhaar card, before beating one of them to death and injuring others in Odisha's Sambalpur district, police said on Thursday.

While the Odisha Police asserted that the incident occurred following an altercation over a bidi on Wednesday night, the workers claimed they were assaulted on suspicion of being Bangladeshis.

West Bengal's ruling Trinamool Congress alleged that the incident in the BJP-ruled state was a fallout of the saffron party's “sustained campaign against Bengalis”.

The six accused people were arrested, a police officer said.

Juel Sheikh, the deceased, along with a few others from West Bengal, worked at a construction site in Shanti Nagar in the Ainthapali police station area.

When they were preparing food at their living place, a group of six men stopped them and asked for a bidi. When they denied, the workers were asked to show their Aadhaar cards. An altercation broke out over this, leading to a scuffle between the two sides, police said.

Sheikh was hit on the head, and he died while undergoing treatment at the Sambalpur hospital.

Majhar Khan, another migrant worker from West Bengal, said, “The miscreants first asked bidi from us and then asked me to show our Aadhaar cards. Later, they rammed Juel Sheikh’s head against a hard object.” Nizamuddin Khan alleged that the attackers called them Bangladeshis before assaulting Sheikh and two others. Two other injured persons have been hospitalised and are under treatment.

IGP (Northern Range) Himanshu Kumar Lal said, "We have arrested six accused people. The police are investigating the case." Asked about the allegation, the IGP said the murder has nothing to do with whether the "victim was a Bengali or a Bangladeshi".

Additional SP Srimanta Barik said the workers from the neighbouring state had been living in the area for several years, and they know the accused persons.

Police said the investigation is in progress to find out if other individuals were involved in the crime.

West Bengal's ruling TMC claimed that Sheikh was beaten to death over suspicion that he was an illegal Bangladeshi immigrant.

"The lynching of a Bengali migrant worker in Sambalpur is the direct outcome of @BJP4India’s sustained campaign against Bengalis. A citizen of India was beaten to death because a mob believed the lie that Bengalis are infiltrators who must constantly prove their right to exist," the TMC alleged in a post on X.

"For years, BJP leaders have deliberately branded Bengali-speaking Indians as infiltrators, outsiders, and suspects. That poisonous narrative has now reached the streets, where anyone feels empowered to act as immigration officers and executioners," it claimed.