The Mumbai BJP on Friday announced a prayer meeting for social harmony on Saturday for the 19-year-old student who allegedly died by suicide after being assaulted in local train for not speaking Marathi.
The prayer meeting will be held on November 22 afternoon at the memorial of Balasaheb Thackeray, located in Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Maidan in Dadar area of Mumbai, an official statement said.
The event follows the tragic case of a student from Thane who reportedly committed suicide after being assaulted.
The prayer meeting, organised to promote understanding and calm tensions, will be led by Amit Satam, Mumbai BJP President, the statement said.
The organisers have called for reason and restraint in the community in the wake of the incident.
Meanwhile, Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar told the ANI, “It is an unfortunate incident. Any youth’s loss of life in such circumstances is a matter of shame for the state as well as for the whole country. Those who forced him to take such a drastic step should be held, and strict action should be taken.”
The student committed suicide in Maharashtra`s Thane district after a group of people allegedly assaulted him on a Mumbai local train following an argument over not speaking in Marathi, police said on Thursday.
The deceased, a first-year science student, hanged himself at his apartment in Kalyan East on Tuesday evening, an official said.
“He was travelling to his college in Mulund on a local train on Tuesday morning when the assault took place between Kalyan and Thane stations,” Assistant Commissioner of Police, Kalyanji Gete, told the PTI.
He said the teen`s father has alleged that he asked a passenger to move a little ahead in a crowded compartment, when the latter reprimanded him for not speaking in Marathi, and the matter escalated.
“The passenger, along with his five companions, then brutally assaulted him, raining punches on him. Overwhelmed by fear and nauseous from the beating, he alighted at Thane station and took the next train to Mulund,” the official said.
Without attending all lectures at college, he returned home early and informed his father about the assault on the phone, he said.
“He informed his father about the incident on his mobile phone, and the father sensed fear and tension in his voice. On returning home from work later that evening, he found the door closed. He broke down the door with the help of neighbours, and found his son hanging with a blanket around his neck,” the official further said, according to the PTI.
The teen`s father has lodged a complaint, alleging that he committed suicide due to the mental stress caused by the beating, he said, adding that a case of accidental death has been registered and a probe is underway.
Need help, here are suicide prevention helplines-
Samaritans Mumbai (Monday to Friday from 10 am to 4 pm): 84229-84527
Connecting NGO (From 10 am to 8 pm): 9922004305/9922001122
Snehi (From 10 am to 10 pm): 9376804102
1 Life: 7893078930
Aasra: 9820466726
(with PTI and ANI inputs)
