Angel Chakma's killing ‘not a racial attack’, Uttarakhand Police tells why | Today News

The Uttarakhand Police said on Monday they found no evidence that suggests the killing of 24-year-old Tripura student Angel Chakma in Dehradun was racially motivated.

Angel Chakma, an MBA student, died last week after he was attacked by a group of miscreants with knives and other blunt objects in Dehradun on December 9.

Amid the claim that racial slurs were hurled at Chakma, PD Bhatt, an investigator, was quoted by the Hindustan Times as saying, “We have found no evidence so far to link the incident with racism. There is no basis for such allegations."

Meanwhile, a police official told NDTV that derogatory remarks made "in jest" created the false impression that the student was being targeted.

"It doesn't fall into the category of a racist comment because a young man involved in the incident is also a resident of the same state," Ajay Singh, Senior Superintendent of Police, Dehradun, was quoted by NDTV as saying.

"Some derogatory remarks were being exchanged among themselves by a group of people sitting together, and somehow the impression was created that the comments were being directed at them. It was in this confusion that the clash occurred, and this entire incident resulted from that clash," the official reportedly said in Hindi.

Bhatt reportedly said Chakma was attacked near a liquor shop where Suraj, the accused from Manipur, was celebrating his son’s birthday.

Chakma and his brother, Michael, also purchased liquor from the shop. “An argument broke out between the two sides, which later escalated, resulting in the death of Chakma,” Bhatt said.

Michael said they were out to buy groceries on December 9 when a group of inebriated people started a fight, used racist slurs, and stabbed Chakma.

Five people have already been arrested in connection with the incident. Among them, two accused are minors and have been sent to a juvenile reform home. Bhatt said it is unclear who stabbed Chakma.

Angel Chakma died on December 26. He was 24.

“Those arrested are claiming that the absconding accused stabbed the victim. It will only be clear after his arrest who actually carried out the stabbing,” Bhatt said.

He added that none of the accused has any criminal record and that further investigation is underway.

Union minister Kiren Rijiju on Monday expressed "dismay and anger" over the killing of a Tripura student in an alleged racial attack in Uttarakhand and called upon the people to fight against this "mindset" together, saying any such incident is "very shameful" and harms the country.

"Racism is a very big disease. It does not have any place in our country," he asserted.

Rijiju said that the Uttarakhand government is taking "tough actions" against the culprits and hit out at the opposition parties, saying they should be "ashamed of playing politics" over such a sad incident.

"We are all very sad and angry over the death of a student from the Northeast in Uttarakhand in such an incident. This should not be seen as one isolated incident. Not just in the Northeast, the entire country should be sad over the incident," the minister said.

"Be it the Northeast or in any other part of the country, why should anyone from any other region be subjected to such discrimination on the lines of race, religion, caste and looks, mocked at and attacked," he said.

"Such kind of incidents are very shameful for the country. It causes harm to society and the country as well just because of some people's mindset," he told reporters here.