Migrant worker tied to post, beaten to death by mob in Kerala; 10 held

A MIGRANT worker from Arunachal Pradesh died after suffering grievous injuries in a mob attack in Ernakulam district of Kerala on Thursday night.

The victim, Ashokdas, 24, had been working as a cook at a restaurant in the district. He was also a Youtuber, known as Mc Munnu, and had posted a dozen Hindi musical videos over the last one year. The police on Saturday arrested 10 people in connection with the incident and slapped murder charges on them.

According to the police, the alleged incident happened on Thursday night at val akomv ill age near mu vattupuz ha in er na ku lam rural district. Ashokdas had gone to meet a friend and a former female colleague who was sharing a rented accommodation with another woman. Later in the night, when Ashokdas returned from that house, a group of local people held him hostage. They tied him to a post and thrashed him. The attack on the man was allegedly captured on a mobile phone by one of the assailants.

On what provoked the attack, Ernakulam rural SP Vaibhav Saxena said: “Probe is in the preliminary stage. We are verifying various details and statements. on Thursday night, Ashokdas, who went to the house to meet his friend, came out bleeding from his head. It was stated that he sustained an injury after he banged his head against a window at the house. we are also probing if there was any scuffle between Ashokdas and a neighbour of his friend. The woman did not lodge any complaint against Ashokdas when the police reached ,” he said.

When Ashokdas came out of the house, local people waylaid, tied him to an iron post and beat him up. The police reached the spot later in the night after being alerted by the people. Ashokdas died Friday at the government medical college in Kottayam. Preliminary findings of the postmortem suggest his lungs had sustained fatal injuries.

Val ak am pan ch ayatp resident Bino K Cheriyan said, “Ashokdas was not involved in any criminal activities as far as we know. A month ago, he lost his job at the restaurant. The women were also against the local people' s interventionin their personal matters .”