THANE: A day after it was revealed that a 19-year-old student from Kalyan died by suicide after he was purportedly harassed for not speaking in Marathi, despite being a Maharashtrian himself, in a crowded local train earlier this week, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) pointed to Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray for allegedly stoking a divide over language in the state, even as the Kolsewadi Police formed three special teams to investigate the incident.
On Friday, the BJP accused the Thackeray cousins of spreading “hatred over language”, and will hold a prayer meeting for the deceased teen at Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray’s memorial on Saturday. Mumbai BJP chief Ameet Satam said it was being done so that “good sense prevails” over the cousins.
The move is also the party’s attempt to counter Thackerays’ alliance in the forthcoming civic polls, where the cousins are poised to play the ‘Marathi manoos’ card.
“Uddhav and Raj Thackeray have spread poison and tried to divide society in the name of language and regionalism. It is because of their policies that a Marathi youth had to lose his life. Mumbaikars will teach them a lesson,” said Satam, adding that while “they teach French and German to their children, the youth are losing their lives for speaking a sentence in Hindi”.
Reacting to Satam’s comments, former mayor and Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Kishori Pednekar pointed to “BJP’s divisive politics in the name of religion,” and that “Satam is known for his rants and abusive language”. A Sena (UBT) leader added: “By shifting the blame of the youth’s death on language politics, BJP is trying to garner support from both Marathis and non-Marathis.”
On the other hand, Samajwadi Party MLA Abu Asim Azmi has demanded strict law for the action against culprits in cases of hate crime. “Incidents of language-based hatred are on the rise in Maharashtra. While in the past north Indians were targeted, now a Marathi youth has lost his life. The government should enact a law for stricter punishment for those involved in such heinous crimes,” Azmi said.
Police recreates incident
Meanwhile, Kolsewadi police said they are yet to ascertain if the youth indeed took the drastic step for being bullied over language in a local train. The teams have been tasked to analyse CCTV footage from the railway station and the college.
The student died by suicide on Tuesday evening, allegedly hours after a heated altercation with co-passengers in a crowded local after he spoke in Hindi while requesting fellow commuters to move inside the compartment – “Andar chalo, andar chalo,” he said, trying to weave his way through the crowd. A first-class pass holder, he chose to travel in a crowded second class as his season pass had expired a day before. He had boarded the train from his Kalyan to travel to his college in Mulund.
The police said, after the incident, the victim did not display any unusual behaviour, and also spoke to his father over the phone about being lampooned in the train. The latter advised him to keep calm. He was reticent and emotionally attached with his family.
The Kolsewadi police have identified the train in which the victim travelled, and are currently recreating the sequence of events of the day. Coordinating with the Government Railway Police (GRP), investigators are mapping his travel history: where he boarded, when the argument broke out and whether he had alighted between Kalyan and Thane. Police will also check his attendance records and match it with the CCTV footage from the college campus.
Primary probe has revealed his routine: he would return from college around 12:00 pm and pick up his brother from school, and again pick him up from a private tuition class and mother from an educational institute at Chakki Naka, Kalyan (East), where she recently joined as an office staff, at 7pm.
On the day of the suicide, he reached home around 12:30 pm, but missed picking up his brother and mother later in the evening. Her calls also went unanswered.
Later in the evening, when his father and brother reached their 13th floor apartment in a Kalyan (East) housing society, they found the bedroom locked from inside. When the father’s repeated knocking yielded no response, he summoned neighbours who helped in opening the door only to find the teen hanging. The mother entered the home at the same time. He was then rushed to Rukminibai Hospital in Kalyan, where he was declared dead on arrival.
Police described the victim as a bright student, who was preparing for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET). His younger brother told HT, “He was with me at home from 12:30 pm to 4pm. His behaviour was normal. I later left for my classes and returned after 7:00 pm. He didn’t mention the morning’s incident on the train to me.”
Atul Zende, DCP (Zone 3), said, “The three teams will investigate the reason behind such an extreme step by the victim. We are studying his travel pattern on that day, his activities at the college and gathering statements from his friends, and also trying to understand the circumstances in the train that led to the tragedy.”