Dalit Migrant Worker Lynched in Kerala—Accused of Thievery, Labelled 'Bangladeshi'

Key Points

Kerala police have arrested five persons in connection with the lynching of Ramnarayan Baghel, a 31-year-old Dalit migrant labourer from Chhattisgarh, who was beaten to death in Palakkad district on 17 December 2025. The accused were remanded to judicial custody on 19 December 2025 after a murder case was registered under the BNS.

The case drew widespread attention after a video of the assault went viral on social media. In the footage, a visibly injured Ramnarayan can be seen being questioned by men in the crowd about the language he spoke and the location of his village. A voice in the background is heard asking whether he was Bangladeshi.

Doctors at the Palakkad district hospital informed police that Ramnarayan had suffered multiple injuries across his body and was bleeding from the nose and mouth. According to the FIR, the doctor indicated that the profuse bleeding may have led to his death.

The brutality of the assault was underlined by the postmortem findings. Dr Hitesh Shankar, who conducted the autopsy, described the killing as a “brutal murder” and said that in his professional experience he had never seen a body assaulted so severely, adding that not a single part of Ramnarayan’s body was without injuries.

Ramnarayan had travelled to Kerala only four days before the incident to visit his brother Sasikanth, a mason working in the Kanjikode industrial area. According to his brother, Ramnarayan had come to Kerala seeking work but decided to return home as he did not enjoy the job. Unfamiliar with the area, he lost his way and wandered into Attappallam in the Walayar police station limits.

A panchayat member told the media that Ramnarayan was seen near women working under the MGNREGA scheme on the day of the incident. When he rummaged through one of their bags, reportedly looking for food, the women raised an alarm. A group of men nearby then assaulted him for several hours in a deserted area, questioning him and recording videos of the attack on their phones. No one intervened.

Police were alerted around 7pm, following which Ramnarayan was taken to hospital, where he was declared dead. Before his death, he reportedly told hospital staff that he had been attacked by a mob accusing him of being a thief.

See Also: Muslim Clothes Vendor Lynched in Bihar—Eight Arrested, Probe Underway

Ramnarayan belonged to the Satnami Samaj, a Scheduled Caste (SC) in Chhattisgarh. He was the sole breadwinner of his family, which includes his wife, two young children aged nine and ten, and his elderly mother. His relatives said he had left Chhattisgarh due to irregular work and low daily wages, hoping to earn better in Kerala.

The killing sparked strong political reactions in Kerala. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan condemned the crime, calling it “atypical of progressive Kerala” and said such acts had no place in a democratic society. He announced the formation of a Special Investigation Team under the Kozhikode district police chief and assured compensation to the bereaved family, along with arrangements to return the body to the victim’s native village.

Revenue Minister K Rajan met the family and said the Cabinet would decide compensation of not less than ₹10 lakh. Leaders across the political spectrum described the lynching as a blot on Kerala’s humanist legacy.

CPI(M) state secretary M V Govindan alleged that the accused were linked to the RSS and warned against the spread of polarising politics in the state. Other leaders echoed concerns that the killing reflected xenophobic and caste-based violence, with Ramnarayan allegedly being targeted not only as a suspected thief but also as an “outsider” and Dalit migrant worker. Ramnarayan’s brother, Sasikanth, took to social media demanding justice for his brother and called for a ban on Sangh-affiliated organisations.

(DS)

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