‘Beaten, robbed for speaking Bangla’: Worker flees Odisha
Times of India | 12 January 2026
Goghat: A migrant worker, Raja Ali from Bhadur village panchayat in Goghat was allegedly beaten, tortured and robbed for speaking in Bengali in Odisha on Wednesday and was forced to rush back home.
Raja started working at a stone factory near Cuttack about eight months ago. He was allegedly threatened multiple times for speaking in Bengali in shops and markets. For safety, he would hide and sometimes lock the door from outside while working. Raja claimed that on Wednesday, 10-12 people broke into his room and attacked him. He was staying with 2 other workers who managed to escape. He was beaten and forced to chant "Jai Shri Ram" and around Rs 50,000 were taken from him.
"I only went there to earn a living. They became angry whenever I spoke Bengali. That night, they kept beating me, saying Bengali should not be spoken. They took all my earnings of eight months. I realised I wouldn't survive, so I fled somehow. On Thursday, I left for Cuttack bus stand. I had no money, so the landlord arranged a bus ticket to Mecheda. From Mecheda, I travelled to Arambagh without fare," he said. On Saturday, he filed a complaint at the Goghat police station detailing the entire incident. Raja said that he would never go to Odisha again and would work as a farmer or a mason here. His father, Sheikh Moinuddin said, "The family was dependent on my son's earnings. Now everything is over. I will not send him to Odisha again. Let him work here, but at least let him live."
His mother, Shakuntala Bibi, said, "I don't know how we will manage food and education now. I am an asthma patient, his father has a heart condition, and he himself is now unwell. There is no money for treatment."
Trinamool neta and Goghat-1 panchayat samiti president Vijay Roy said, "It seems like a drive to expel Bengalis in BJP's double-engine govts. We strongly condemn this heinous incident. Our party is extending all possible support to this family."
BJP's Arambagh organisational district president Sushanta Bera said, "These are false and malicious rumours. If they go there and shout Bangladesh's slogan ‘Joy Bangla', who will tolerate it? There are lakhs of Bengalis there, nothing happened to anyone else, and only he was beaten."