In a suspected attack as part of the campaign against north Indians in Maharashtra, a 25-year-old Uttar Pradesh migrant died after being beaten up in a local train by fellow commuters, who allegedly picked up a fight with him and his three friends, police said on Wednesday.

The deceased, Dharam Dev, a resident of Faizabad in Uttar Pradesh, was onboard a Mumbai CST-bound local train from Khopoli along with the three friends yesterday when incident occurred.

Dev, who works as a helper at a construction site, was occupying the window seat in the train, when a group of eight to ten commuters, who appeared to be local villagers, forced them to vacate the seat, police said.

The local group then asked Dev and his friends if they were 'bhaiyyas' after which they started abusing them, they said.

According to the statement given by the victim's friends, the four were slapped and kicked, thus rendering Dev unconscious.

The local group got off the train at Karjat, while Dev and his friends remained in the train. The victim's friend then called up the Railway Protection Force (RPF) control number, which is displayed in trains.

Officials from the RPF then boarded the train at Badlapur and Dev was rushed to a nearby hospital where he was declared dead.

A K Sharma, Commissioner of GRP, said, "As per our information, the person died at the hospital. The information we have suggests that there were no external injuries on the victim's body. We are waiting for the postmortem report".

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