Odisha: Man arrested for assaulting, forcing workers to chant Jai Shri Ram

The arrest of a man at Odisha's Balasore railway station for allegedly assaulting migrant workers and forcing them to chant religious slogans has followed widespread outrage, as videos of coercion and vigilante intimidation against vulnerable people continue to surface from across the country.

The Government Railway Police said on Monday that the Balasore incident occurred late on Sunday night, when several passengers — many of them migrant workers — were sleeping in the station’s waiting hall. They were allegedly woken up by a group of men who demanded to see their Aadhaar cards and forced them to chant 'jai Shri Ram'.

A purported video of the incident, which circulated widely on social media, shows one man aggressively confronting the workers and physically assaulting at least one of them, while others are seen being intimidated and questioned. The footage captures scenes of fear and humiliation inside a public railway space, with the victims appearing visibly distressed.

Personnel from the Railway Protection Force reached the spot and detained one of the accused, who was later handed over to the GRP. The accused has been identified as Sagar Jena, a resident of Gandarda village under Sadar police station limits.

Police said other associates involved in the incident have been identified and will be arrested. A case has been registered under sections 126 (wrongful restraint), 196 (acts promoting enmity between groups), 115(2) (voluntarily causing hurt), and 351(2) (criminal intimidation) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, and an investigation is underway.

The Balasore incident is not an aberration but part of a growing pattern of public intimidation. In Sambalpur district on 24 December, a 20-year-old Bengali migrant worker from Murshidabad, West Bengal — identified as Jewel (also reported as Juel) Sheikh — was brutally assaulted by a mob and later died of his injuries after being questioned about his identity and accused of being an illegal immigrant from Bangladesh.

Fellow workers said the attackers demanded Aadhaar cards and lashed out when they spoke Bengali, branding them as foreigners before attacking them with bamboo sticks and heavy objects. Two co-workers were also hospitalised with serious injuries. Six men have been arrested in connection with the killing.

That incident followed reports of a 35-year-old Bengali street vendor in Bhadrak, being beaten by a mob after being accused of being a Bangladeshi immigrant — an attack captured on video and shared online, reinforcing fears among migrant workers about their safety in public spaces.

These episodes of violence echo another troubling trend seen earlier in the state, where groups of Bengali-speaking workers reportedly faced harassment, were forced to prove identity, and in some cases hastily fled back to their home districts out of fear for their lives.

Still in Odisha , another recent video showed a man threatening poor streetside vendors selling Santa Claus costumes ahead of Christmas, warning them against participating in the festival and issuing menacing instructions couched in religious rhetoric. That footage, too, triggered outrage over the normalisation of threats and intimidation against those with little social or economic power.

In Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, a video that circulated earlier this month showed Kashmiri shawl trader Bilal Ahmed being harassed and allegedly assaulted after being asked to identify himself and pressured to chant Bharat Mata ki jai. The incident drew sharp criticism, with civil rights groups warning that migrant traders and minority workers were increasingly being singled out in public spaces.

Elsewhere, similar videos have emerged of individuals being forced to chant slogans during confrontations — often filmed, shared and celebrated online — raising alarms about the use of coercion as a public spectacle.

Reacting strongly to the Balasore incident, Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee president Bhakta Charan Das said the assault reflected a deeper political problem.

“The assault on migrant workers at Balasore Railway Station, forcing Aadhaar checks and slogan chanting is the direct result of BJP’s divisive politics,” Das said in a post on X. “We strongly condemn this incident and demand strict action. Odisha will not tolerate politics driven by fear and communal hatred.”

With PTI inputs