56-year-old migrant dies on road to home, another dies after police lathi charge

The nationwide lockdown continued to take its toll on migrant workers with a 56-year-old dying on the road to Puri after travelling around 200 km from Kolkata and a 28-year-old worker injured in police lathi charge dying in a Surat hospital.

In another incident, a 38-year-old migrant worker staying in a quarantine centre in Mayurbhanj hanged himself from a tree following a minor tiff with his wife, who also stayed in the same centre.

On Friday morning, Dhubei Charan Mohanty, a 56-year-old man from Puri district slumped to death at Laxmannath tollgate on Odisha-Bengal border after travelling about 200 km from Kolkata. Mohanty, who worked in a private company in Kolkata for a salary of Rs 13,000 a month, was stranded there after the nationwide lockdown was clamped. He had also run out of money as his company was shut.

On Friday morning, he had hopped onto a bus from Kolkata to travel to his home in Tikarpada village under Kakatpur police station area of Puri district, around 500 km away. He got down from the bus at Laxmannath toll gate at 11.30 am and had started walking across the border when he fell down. He was taken to the GK Bhattar Hospital where doctor Dilip Patra declared him dead. “Though we are yet to conduct a post-mortem, he might have suffered acute dehydration due to high temperature leading to cardiac arrest. Today it was a little hot during daytime,” said Patra.

Meanwhile, Odisha police today announced that no migrant from other states passing by Odisha will have to walk. Following reports of migrants walking under hot Sun, Odisha DGP Abhay said they can walk into the nearest police station and police will make their travel arrangements. The cost of travel would be reimbursed from chief minister’s relief fund. So far, 1,349 buses and 4,372 four-wheelers have passed through 12 border check points in Odisha.

In Surat town of Gujarat, Satyaban Swain, a 28-year-old migrant worker from Ganjam, working in a private factory there died late Thursday night soon after he was allegedly beaten up by the police.

On Thursday evening, several migrant workers had gone to local Amroli police seeking registration of their names for booking of train tickets to Odisha.

“Seeing so many migrant workers, the cops chased them away to their factory at Anjani Industries area. Swain, who was sitting inside the factory premises, was rounded up by police along with others and thrashed badly. An injured Swain was put up in an autorickshaw along with others and taken to Amroli police station. Fearful of more police torture at the police station, Swain jumped off the auto-rickshaw and suffered critical injuries.

He was rushed to a hospital where doctors declared him dead,” said Raghunath Panda, a leading member of Odia community in Surat.

The migrant worker is survived by his wife and a five-year-old mentally-challenged son.

In another incident, a 38-year-old migrant working in a marble factory of Vijaywada, who was admitted to a quarantine centre in Mayurbhanj district, hanged himself from a Mahul tree following a tiff with his wife. His wife, too, was quarantined there. Police said Surendra Nayak of Raikama village under Baisinga block was quarantined 6 days ago after returning from Vijaywada. His wife, who had travelled to Prashanti Nilayam in Andhra Pradesh with a group of Sai devotees, too, was quarantined there.

His younger brother said late last evening the couple had a tiff over Surendra’s suspicion that his wife had an affair with one of the Sai devotees with whom she had travelled. This morning, Surendra’s body was found hanging from a Mahul tree. He was wearing just underwear when the body was recovered.