Sambalpur: A 30-year-old Muslim migrant worker from West Bengal was allegedly killed in Odisha’s Sambalpur district following an altercation over a bidi, police said on Thursday.

Juel Sheikh was working, along with a few others from West Bengal, in the construction of a building in Shanti Nagar in the Ainthapalli police station area, they said.

On Wednesday night, when they were returning from work, a group of six men stopped them and asked for a bidi. An altercation broke out, leading to a scuffle between the two sides, police said.

Juel was thrashed severely, and he died while undergoing treatment at the Sambalpur hospital, police said.

“We have arrested all six accused persons. We are investigating the case,” IGP (Northern Range) Himanshu Kumar Lal told PTI.

The local workers rushed Juel to a nearby hospital, where the doctors declared him dead. The other two labourers injured in the attack are currently undergoing treatment.

West Bengal’s ruling TMC claimed that Juel was beaten to death over suspicion that he was an illegal Bangladeshi immigrant.

“The lynching of a Bengali migrant worker in Sambalpur is the direct outcome of BJP’s sustained campaign against Bengalis. A citizen of India was beaten to death because a mob believed the lie that Bengalis are infiltrators who must constantly prove their right to exist,” the TMC alleged in a post on X.

“For years, BJP leaders have deliberately branded Bengali-speaking Indians as infiltrators, outsiders, and suspects. That poisonous narrative has now reached the streets, where anyone feels empowered to act as immigration officers and executioners,” it claimed.

Asked about the allegation, the IGP said the murder has nothing to do with whether the “victim was a Bengali or Bangladeshi”.