Anjel Chakma was one of the first students in his final-year MBA batch to be placed at a private company. A football enthusiast and one of the brightest in his class, he hoped to graduate with flying colours and begin work at the French MNC — an accomplishment that would have meant the world to a family that took an education loan to send him to Uttarakhand.
On December 9, when the 24-year-old was out in Dehradun with his younger brother Michael (21), a group of six, including two juveniles, picked up a fight that escalated into a racial attack, which allegedly saw the brothers being called “Chinese” and “momo”. Five men have been arrested and sent to judicial custody, while one is absconding.
Kwthar Debbarma, the secretary of the Uttarakhand Tripura Students’ Association and one of the students who closely assisted Chakma’s family at the hospital, told The Indian Express, “They started arguing, and when the boys responded, they called them names like ‘momo’ and ‘Chinese’. Chakma told them they are from Tripura and are Indian, but the group continued to taunt them. The two decided to leave — Anjel had even started his motorcycle — but the men hit Michael on the head. Anjel got down and resisted the attack, but the accused had a knife and stabbed him,” Debbarma said.
The complaint, based on which an FIR has been registered, also recorded Michael as saying that the accused called them racist slurs before attacking them. “Chakma was operated on, and it seemed like he would survive, but his health deteriorated, and he had to be placed on ventilator support,” Debbarma said. He died 17 days after the attack, on December 26.
According to senior sub-inspector Jitender Kumar, Yagya Raj Awasthi, who belongs to Nepal, is on the run, and two teams have been dispatched to arrest him.
Although the complaint was filed on December 10, a day after the attack, an FIR was registered on December 12, and arrests were made on December 14 — a delay the family has now highlighted.
After Chakma was hospitalised, he was responding well to the treatment, said the vice-chancellor of Jigyasa University, Dr Shankar Ramamoorthy. “We visited him, and he told me that he was apprehensive about missing his exams. He even told me that he has high bone density and will get well in no time. All of us held out that hope,” he said. The VC said he met with the youth’s father, who, too, was worried about his third-semester exams. “The thought that he would slip into this condition never occurred to us,” Dr Ramamoorthy said.
The dean, Dr Vivek D Singh, said he was an active student and excelled in football. “As it was the third semester, he sat in on a few placement interviews and was among a few students to have already received an offer. He was excited,” said the professor.
Chakma was a day scholar at the university and hails from Unakoti in Tripura. His family said he had secured a job with a French multinational that deals in sporting goods.
In Tripura’s state capital, Agartala, protesters took to the streets demanding harsh punishment for the accused.
Momen Chakma, the youth’s uncle, said the family is in disbelief over the loss of a “brilliant and promising boy”.
“He was a bright student. His family is not particularly wealthy; a typical middle-class family like many others in Tripura. He took a student loan to study MBA in Uttarakhand and was about to sit for his final semester exams on December 10, just a day after he was beaten horribly by men who looked at his racial identity more than him. We want strong punishment for the culprits so no other family has to bear the loss that we had to,” he said.
The youth’s father, BSF head constable Tarun Prasad Chakma, who is currently posted in Manipur, was quoted by PTI as saying that the police initially refused to register a report about the incident and only filed an FIR two to three days later after pressure from the All India Chakma Students Union and senior officers. His uncle, Momen, also flagged this delay to The Indian Express.
With one son gone, their mother, Gourimita Chakma, is scared to send Michael back to Uttarakhand.
Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha said that he has spoken to his Uttarakhand counterpart, Pushkar Singh Dhami. “The CM informed me that, in connection with the case, five accused have already been arrested. Further investigation is underway, and he has assured that justice will be delivered,” he said.
Dhami said such an incident is unacceptable in the state. “The government will deal strictly with anti-social elements, and those involved in such crimes will not be spared,” he said. The state government said that the police are conducting raids to arrest the absconding accused, on whom a reward of Rs 25,000 has been announced.
The incident also drew condemnation from Meghalaya CM Conrad Sangma, who is also a leader of the recently launched ‘One Northeast’ party jointly with Pradyot Kishore Manikya Debbarma. “Anjel Chakma from Tripura lost his life after facing brutal racial abuse in Dehradun. This is heartbreaking and unacceptable. Racial violence must not be tolerated. People from the North East are as Indian as every citizen of this country. Racism should never be normalised, and the perpetrators must be punished,” he said.
Dr Ramamoorthy, the V-C of the university where Chakma studied, said they will ensure the campus is sensitised to be more accommodating to students from the Northeast. “The government has to do a lot more for the students from the region. The taunt was that he was Chinese. This local sentiment has to be changed, and it requires a policy-level intervention,” he said. “This is a wake-up call. Even inside the campus, we will ensure measures are taken to curb such sentiments to embrace cultural and religious differences. This is unfortunate to the student community, and to Dehradun, which is known as an educational hub.”