6 arrested in connection with UP migrant’s lynching

“All the six were produced in the railway court in Kalyan today and they were remanded to police custody till November 3,” Raghuvanshi said.

The incident was not a “hate crime” but it was a thing that happened on the spur of the moment, he said.

He also said that all the six arrested have no political affiliation.

The GRP had detained around 20 persons for questioning in connection with the case.

The victim, Dharam Dev (25), a resident of Faizabad in UP was aboard a Mumbai CST-bound local train from Khopoli when the incident occurred.

Dev, who worked as a helper at a construction site, was occupying the window seat in the train when a group of eight to ten commuters, who appeared to be local villagers, forced him to vacate the seat, police said.

The local group then asked Dev and his friends if they were ‘bhaiyyas’ and started abusing them, they said.

According to the statement given by the victim’s friends, they were slapped and kicked, rendering Dev unconscious.

The local group got off at Karjat, while Dev and his friends remained in the train. The victim’s friend then called up the Railway Protection Force (RPF) control number, which is displayed in the trains.

Officials from the RPF then boarded the train at Badlapur and Dev was rushed to a nearby hospital where he was declared dead.