Another day, another ‘lynching’: Migrant worker from Bengal killed in Odisha on ‘Bangladeshi’ suspicion

A Muslim migrant worker from West Bengal’s Murshidabad district was allegedly lynched in Odisha’s Sambalpur on December 24 by a mob which accused him of being a ‘Bangladeshi, his family has claimed.

Twenty-year-old Sheikh Juel Rana from Suti in Jangipur subdivision of Murshidabad had gone to the neighbouring state for masonry work on December 20. On Friday, Juel’s body was brought back home in Chakbahadurpur village.

Juel is survived by two sisters, one younger to him.

According to a complaint lodged by Juel’s mother, Nazma Bibi, at Suti police station, seven-eight locals raided the place where Juel and his co-workers lived around 8.30 pm on December 24 and told them that they were “Bangali Bangladeshis” (Bengali-speaking Bangladeshis) and they would be beaten up. Even as this conversation was on, they started assaulting Juel and his colleagues with iron rods and sharp weapons. They were hit on their head. While Juel died from the brutal attack, two of his co-workers landed in hospital with severe injuries.

Based on the complaint, an FIR was lodged under Sections 103(2), 108(2), 109(3)(5) of the Bhartiya Nyay Sanhita. Alt News is in possession of a copy of the complaint. Section 103 (2) relates to mob lynching which is defined as murder by “a group of five or more persons acting in concert… on the ground of race, caste or community, sex, place of birth, language, personal belief or any other ground…” . According to BNS, “Each member of such group shall be punished with death or with imprisonment for life or imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than seven years, and shall also be liable to fine.”

Six persons have been arrested in the case.

Alt News spoke to Juel’s mother on December 26. “My husband works as a mason in Kerala. He has returned home to find his son dead. Juel was killed because he spoke Bengali and he was a Muslim,” she said.

Local police, however, pointed at a monetary dispute as the reason behind the murderous assault. Sambalpur SP Mukesh Bhamu told TOI, “The quarrel began over smoking bidis but quickly escalated. One person died and two other were injured.”

Police said the incident took place at a construction site at Dalipali under Ainthapali police station area. Some locals had approached Juel and his co-workers for some bidis. The conversation soon turned into an argument and the migrants were asked to show Aadhaar cards. Following this, the argument turned violent.

Odisha IG Himangshu Lal, too, claimed there was “no communal or linguistic” aspect.

The contractor who had engaged Juel in work contradicted the police version. “The police claim is totally false. I have sent several boys to work there. The miscreants called them Bangladeshis. They were local RSS  men. They also sought Aadhaar cards,” Haque told Alt News.

The alleged lynching comes within a week of a Dalit man from Chhattisgarh being lynched on the suspicion of theft in Kerala’s Palakkad district. The victim, Ramnarayan Baghel, 31, was visiting his brother. Like Juel, he, too, had arrived in the state days before the incident. In a video of the assault that went viral, a bloodied Ramnarayan could be seen being asked if he was a Bangladeshi.

The incident is also the latest in a series of alleged attacks on Bengali-speaking migrant workers in several places in India that started getting reported from June-July 2025.

Declaration of War Against Bengalis: Trinamool Congress

The Trinamool Congress reacted strongly to the Sambalpur incident by calling it “a declaration of war against Bengalis”. The Bengal ruling party linked the crime directly to Juel’s linguistic identity.  

“In BJP-ruled states, speaking Bengali has become a punishable offence. In Sambalpur, Odisha, Jewel Rana was beaten to death, not for a crime, not for violence, but for his language, his identity, his existence as a Bengali. This was a lynching enabled by hate, normalised by power, and protected by silence. And where is Bengal BJP? Hiding behind Delhi’s boots. Gagged, obedient, spineless. Not a single demand for accountability. Not a single word for a murdered Bengali…” the party said in an X post. 

This is no longer politics. This is a declaration of war against Bengalis.

In @BJP4India ruled states, speaking Bengali has become a punishable offence. In Sambalpur, Odisha, Jewel Rana was beaten to death, not for a crime, not for violence, but for his language, his identity,… pic.twitter.com/6Aje49XZYQ

— All India Trinamool Congress (@AITCofficial) December 25, 2025

Trinamool Rajya Sabha member and state migrant workers welfare board chairman Samirul Islam called it another case of Bengali speaking migrant workers being targeted in a BJP-ruled state.

Once again Bengali spekaing migrant workers targeted in BJP-ruled state.

In Odisha’s Sambalpur one from Murshidabad lynched to death and two others injured after BJP goons attacked them & labelled them as Bangladeshi infiltrators.

How many lives of innocent Bengali speaking…

— Samirul Islam (@SamirulAITC) December 25, 2025