W Bengal migrant killed after spat, no other motive, say Pune cops after CM Banerjee alleges hate crime

After West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday claimed that a 24-year-old migrant worker from her state was murdered in Pune for speaking in Bengali, police said he was killed by two persons with whom he had got into an argument in a drunken state. Two people including a minor have been detained in the case and further probe is on, the police said, ruling out the possibility that it was a ''hate crime'' as alleged by Banerjee. The incident took place in the late evening on February 9 at Koregaon under Shikrapur police station limits, they said. ''The probe so far has not indicated that the crime is a fallout of any hatred against any community.....it was a fallout of some instant spat,'' said Sandip Singh Gill, Superintendent of Pune Rural Police. Sukhen Mahto, the deceased, worked in a local factory, said inspector Dipratan Gaikwad of Shikrapur police station. ''He left his house to go to work at 3 pm on that day. But instead of going to work, he started roaming in Koregaon in a drunken state and picked up a spat with two persons,'' the inspector said. ''Preliminary probe suggests that following the spat, he was allegedly murdered by the two persons. We have CCTV footage in which the deceased is seen in unstable condition and arguing with two persons. The actual assault did not get captured in the CCTV camera. But he was found killed with a sharp weapon nearby,'' Gaikwad said. There was no angle to the crime other than fallout of a quarrel, the official said. ''We have registered an offence and two locals including a minor have been detained,'' said inspector Gaikwad. Earlier in the day, chief minister Banerjee termed the incident a ''hate crime'', and demanded immediate arrest of the perpetrators. In a post on X, she said, ''I am shaken, enraged, and sickened beyond words by the barbaric murder of Sukhen Mahato, a 24-year-old migrant worker from Bandwan in Purulia, the sole earning member of his family, in Pune, Maharashtra. This is nothing short of a hate crime. A young man was hunted, tortured, and murdered for his language, his identity, his roots. ''This is the direct consequence of a climate where xenophobia is weaponised and innocents are turned into targets,'' Banerjee added.