Within hours of racial spit hit on a girl from Manipur in New Delhi, another incident has surfaced where a man from Assam was thrown out of a train in Andhra Pradesh.
Amid Coronavirus panic, people from Northeast have become targets of racial assaults.
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On Sunday night, a man spat on a 25-year-old woman from Manipur in North-West Delhi’s Mukherjee Nagar area.
In another case of suspected racial discrimination, a Bodo man from Assam was assaulted and thrown from a train near Srikakulam railway station in Andhra Pradesh’s Amadalavalasa town.
Also read: Man spits at Manipuri woman in Delhi, calls her ‘corona’
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The 32-year-old man has been identified as Mepal Basumatary, a resident of Amteka village under Amguri police station in Chirang district.
Talking to Northeast Now on Wednesday, Pramila Basumatary, wife of the victim, informed that the incident took place at around 7 am on Friday.
“He was beaten up by a miscreant in the train while returning home,” said Pramila Basumatary.
Also read: COVID-19: Home ministry asks states to take action for harassing Northeast people
She said Mepal left for Bangalore in search of work in December 2019 as he needed money to run the family.
He was working as a labourer in Bangalore.
She informed that Mepal had received injuries in his face, teeth and other parts of the body.
He was taken to the hospital by a kind-hearted person, she said.
Also read: COVID-19: NESO condemns racial discriminations against people from Northeast
However, Mepal, who is still stranded at Srikakulam, has been passing harrowing time as he was even chased away by the railway staff from the railway station due to the lockdown.
Though the incident had taken place five days back, it came to light on Wednesday when a Spurthi Kolipaka, who pioneered menstrual advocacy programmes in rural areas of Telangana, shared a post with an image of Mepal’s Aadhaar card, on her Twitter handle.
The eco-feminist social worker alleged that injured Mepal has been passing his days on the streets without help.
Kolipaka, who tagged her post to the Andhra Pradesh chief minister, seeking help, also informed that Mepal has not received any support from neither the railway staff nor the police.
Language barrier has also caused trouble, she said, as Mepal “speaks only Bodo”.
Kolipaka tweeted: “Bodo labourer who was panic travelling from Bangalore fell down near Srikakulam railway station from train. He is injured & on the streets for last 2 days. Rly stn staff and local police not helping. He speaks only bodo. HELP!”
It may be mentioned that following reports of harassment of people from Northeast after cornavirus outbreak, the Union home ministry has asked law-enforcing agencies to take action against anybody found harassing people from the region.
The directive came after several incidents of racial discrimination against people from Northeast living in Delhi were reported following the outbreak of coronavirus.