Kerala ‘lynching’: Victim was asked if he was Bangladeshi; brutality shocks autopsy surgeon

Five persons were arrested for allegedly lynching a Dalit man from Chhattisgarh on the suspicion of theft in Kerala’s Palakkad district on December 17. The victim, Ramnarayan Baghel, 31, was visiting his brother, Sasikanth. He had arrived in the state four days before the incident.

In a video of the assault that has since gone viral, a bloodied Ramnarayan can be seen being asked what language he speaks. One man in the crowd asks, “Hindi?… Kaunsa bhasha?” (Translation: “What language do you speak? Hindi?”) The crowd also inquires about the location of his village. Meanwhile, the cameraperson can be heard asking if he is Bangladeshi.

The five accused, Anu (38), Prasad (34), Murali (38), Anandan (55) and Bipin (30), were remanded to judicial custody on December 19. Speaking to reporters, Ramnarayan’s brother said his sibling had been killed by a mob and demanded that the case be registered under mob lynching laws. He also sought the constitution of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) and compensation of ₹25 lakh for the deceased’s family, particularly his children.

Ramnarayan was the sole breadwinner for his family comprising his wife, two children and elderly mother.

Sasikanth recounted that Ramnarayan had visited him for work, but he did not enjoy the work, so he decided to return home. “He is new (to Kerala), so he lost his way and ended up in the area where the incident happened. There, people did what they did. I do not know the whole sequence of events. But we were told by the police that he died because of the assault”, he said.

Sasikanth works as a mason in the Kanjikode industrial area. The alleged assault took place at Attappallam in Walayar police station area, about 350 km north of Trivandrum.

Ramnarayan had reportedly left his brother’s house while Sasinath was at work. His brother had no information about his whereabouts for an entire day. On Wednesday night, he received a call from the police asking whether he knew Ramnarayan. “They found my phone number in his pocket during the inquest,” he said.

The Indian Express quoted Panchayat member Sivaraman as saying that Ramnarayan was seen near women working under the MGNREGS on Wednesday afternoon. When he rummaged through one of their bags, the women raised an alarm, following which a group of men nearby assaulted him for several hours, questioning him and recording videos on their phones. The attack took place in a deserted area, and no one intervened. He did not steal anything, Sivaraman said, adding that it was unclear if he was searching for food. Around 7 pm, locals alerted the police, who took him to Palakkad district hospital, where he was declared dead.

An image of Ramnarayan after the assault later surfaced online. Before his death, the victim informed the hospital staff that he had been attacked by a mob who alleged that he was a thief. According to the FIR, the doctor on duty informed police that Ramnarayan had sustained multiple injuries and was bleeding from the nose and mouth. The doctor indicated that profuse bleeding may have caused his death, following which the police registered a murder case under Section 103(1) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.

Calling Ramnarayan’s death a ‘brutal murder’, Dr Hitesh Shankar, who performed the post-mortem stated that despite having performed many post-mortems throughout his career, he had never seen anyone “assaulted this brutally.” According to him, not a single part of Ramnarayan’s body was without injuries.

Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan condemned the crime. He said the killing of Ram Narayan was “atypical of progressive Kerala” and that such criminals had no place in a progressive society. He announced the formation of a special investigation team (SIT) under the district police chief of Kozhikode, as per the demands of the deceased’s family. He also promised appropriate compensation. Revenue minister K Rajan stated that the Cabinet would decide a compensation of not less than Rs. 10 lakh to the family and would also ensure stringent action against the accused.

CPI(M) state secretary M V Govindan and Kerala self-governance minister M B Rajesh have claimed that the accused in the case were RSS workers. Investigators in the case also reportedly found that two of the accused, Murali and Anu, had been named in a case around 15 years ago involving assaults on workers linked to the Democratic Youth Federation of India and Centre of Indian Trade Unions. Murali is also an accused in another case related to an attack on Stephen, a CITU headload worker, which is currently pending before the Kerala high court.