Patna: A railway job seeker from Bihar was beaten to death by Raj Thackeray's party activists in Mumbai on Sunday, his family has alleged, adding that Mumbai police tried to hush it up.
Pawan Mahto, 25, the only son of a poor farmer, was thrashed at Andheri station on his way to his railway recruitment exam centre, relatives and fellow candidates travelling with him have told his family in Nalanda district.
Pawan Mahto, 25, the only son of a poor farmer, was thrashed at Andheri station on his way to his railway recruitment exam centre, relatives and fellow candidates travelling with him have told his family in Nalanda district.
They said Pawan, seriously injured in the head and legs, was thrown on the tracks by the stone and stick-wielding mob and died soon after.
This is a totally false claim. The boy died in a train accident, Mumbai railway police commissioner A.K. Sharma said this evening.
He was trying to catch a running train to Bhayander, where I believe he was to appear for a railway recruitment exam. He failed to judge the train's take-off speed, fell down and died.
Earlier, officers at Andheri railway police station, too, had said it was an accident, but claimed it happened while Pawan was getting off his train. An officer, quoting a certain Shailendra whom he described as Pawan's brother, said: Pawan suffered an accident while getting off the train. We found his body on the tracks and took him to Cooper Hospital, where he was declared dead on arrival.
However, those accompanying Pawan denied that anyone called Shailendra was with them.
I don't know any Shailendra. Pawan was my only son; he had no brother, sobbed his father Jagdish Prasad Mahto, who grows vegetables on his half-bigha plot in Bara Khurd village, 115km from Patna.
He said Mumbai police did not inform the family about the death, and that he had learnt of it when relatives called up from Mumbai. He then got in touch with local MLA Shravan Kumar, who arranged for Pawan's body to be brought from Mumbai.
Mere parivar ka diya bujh gaya; hamara eklauta sahara chhin gaya (my family's lamp has gone out; our only solace has been snatched from us), Jagdish wept as he watched the body being carried out of a plane at Patna airport around 1.30 this afternoon.
Activists of Raj Thackeray's Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) had attacked hundreds of north Indian candidates at railway exam centres across Mumbai on Sunday.
Pawan, a graduate from Bihar Sharief College near his home, reached Trombay on Saturday and put up with relatives and acquaintances from his village who worked as labourers in Maharashtra. On Sunday, he caught a train from Dadar and reached Andheri around 8am.
I could give him only Rs 200 besides the train tickets, said Jagdish, who has three daughters. The MLA, who accompanied him to the airport, arranged a vehicle and money for the body to be taken home.
Chief minister Nitish Kumar, also from Nalanda, announced Rs 1.5 lakh for the family and promised action against the attackers.
Patna rampage
Railway exam candidates returning from Mumbai and other students went on the rampage at Patna Junction station in protest against Pawan's death. They stoned the ticket counters and trains and smashed windowpanes.
Railway exam candidates returning from Mumbai and other students went on the rampage at Patna Junction station in protest against Pawan's death. They stoned the ticket counters and trains and smashed windowpanes.
Hundreds of youths shouted slogans saying Raj should be hanged. They lodged a complaint against Raj and the MNS with the railway police, urging a murder case be registered.
Students staged demonstrations in Darbhanga, Gaya, Nalanda and other parts of the state too, erupting in stray violence at some places.
Bihar's principal secretary (home), Afzal Amanullah, warned that any violence would be punished. He added: We are in constant touch with Maharashtra police. We are trying to ascertain the facts. Action will be taken against the killers (of Pawan).
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