Mumbai : A 19-year-old college student from Kalyan, Arnav Khaire, died by suicide after facing humiliation and assault during a language-related dispute aboard a Mumbai local train.
According to his father, Arnav was travelling to his college in Mulund when he requested another commuter to move forward. The situation escalated unexpectedly when a group of passengers mocked him, questioning why he wasn’t speaking Marathi and accusing him of being “ashamed” of the language. The argument soon turned violent, with four to five individuals physically assaulting him.
Deeply shaken by the incident, Arnav got off the train at Thane instead of his intended stop at Mulund. The emotional trauma of the assault and the verbal abuse reportedly weighed heavily on him. Later that day, Arnav took his own life at home.
His father, Jitendra Khaire, has urged authorities and the public to ensure that such discrimination never happens again. Police at Kolsewadi have registered a case and begun further investigation into the assault and the circumstances leading to Arnav’s death.
