MUMBAI: Violence against north Indians in Maharashtra claimed one more life on Tuesday. A scuffle over seats on a suburban train between Khopoli and Karjat resulted in the death of Dharam Dev Roy, 25, of Uttar Pradesh.
Roy and three of his friends, who work in a private company at Khopoli, were on their way to the Chhatrapati Shivaji terminus en route to their home state for Diwali celebrations when the incident happened.
Assistant police inspector Omkar Chauhan, said he and a railway police team had got on the train at Badlapur around 2pm on being informed of the trouble and found Roy unconscious.
His companions claimed that they had boarded the train at Khopoli when a dispute arose over seats. A gang of 10 to 15 Marathi-speaking men asked them if they were bhaiyyas and started attacking them, Roy's friends told the police.
Chauhan said Roy and his friends were taken to Dubey hospital at Badlapur where the 25-year-old died around 9.45pm.
Chauhan, however, said the police were waiting for the post-mortem examination report as neither Roy nor his three friends had any external injuries. Police sources said it was strange that none of the victims had any bruises as would have been natural if they had been assaulted.
The incident follows close on the heels on last weeks attacks by Maharashtra Navnirman Sena activists in Mumbai's suburbs on candidates from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh who were to appear for a railway recruitment examination.
And on Monday, a youth from Bihar had hijacked a bus at Kurla saying he wanted revenge against the MNS chief Raj Thackeray, only to be shot dead by the police after he opened fire injuring a passenger.
