What Teen Thrashed Over Language Row Told His Father Before Suicide

A day after a student from Maharashtra's Thane died by suicide following an argument over not speaking Marathi in a local train, his father said that his son kept repeating that he was beaten up ruthlessly.

First-year science student Arnav Khaire's father Jitendra Khaire said his son told him that when he was on his way to college in a crowded local train and asked a co-passenger to move forward in Hindi, people asked him if he was ashamed to speak in Marathi and then started slapping him. "My son left for college in the morning in a crowded train, where the usual pushing and shoving happened inside the compartment. He told me that he asked someone to move forward as he was getting squished. Soon, some people asked him 'Can't you speak Marathi? Are you ashamed of speaking in Marathi?'," he told reporters.

Arnav Khaire told his father that he was allegedly slapped by people and then beaten up ruthlessly. "He said there were many of them and he was so frightened that instead of deboarding at Mulund for his college, he deboarded at Thane," Jitendra Khaire said.

The teen's father also told cops that his son, overwhelmed by fear and nauseous from the beating, deboarded the train at Thane and took a later train to Mulund and reached his college. He returned home without attending any lectures and also informed his father about the assault on the phone. "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," Kalyanji Gete, Assistant Commissioner of Police, told PTI.

Jitendra Khaire registered a police complaint based on which an Accidental Death Report was registered. No arrests have been made so far.

The incident is the latest to be reported in Mumbai and surrounding regions that pertains to a row over the Marathi language. Last month, a passenger aboard a Mumbai-bound Air India flight forced another flyer to speak in Marathi.

On the same day, a Class 10 student from Delhi's St Columba's School died by suicide by jumping in from of a metro. The student left behind a suicide note in which he named a few teachers, blaming them for his mental distress, and demanded strict action against them.