A 19-year-old student died by suicide in Maharashtra on Tuesday, allegedly after being harassed and assaulted by fellow passengers on a local train for not speaking Marathi. He was found dead at his home in Thane, police said.

Arnav Khaire, a first-year BSc student at Kelkar College in Mulund, had been travelling in a second-class compartment on 18 November after his first-class season pass expired. According to ACP Kalyanji Gete, a minor argument reportedly broke out between him and other passengers because he was speaking in Hindi.

“Due to the crowd, Arnav accidentally brushed against a man and asked a passenger to move a little ahead in Hindi,” the victim’s father, Jitendra Khaire, said. Arnav told his father that the passengers asked why he was not speaking Marathi and whether he was

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