The men who assaulted Samuel were drunk, believe the police.
A young man from Manipur was reportedly attacked on Wednesday evening in Bengaluru - a city which recently witnessed an assault on a student from the same state, reportedly for his inability to speak in Kannada.
Samuel was allegedly assaulted by three men while he was on his way home.
Samuel told NDTV, "I was going home last night from work. Three strangers came from the other side and started teasing a woman in front of me. After that, they started teasing me, calling me names. I didn't say anything and passed them by. I thought they had left. But they followed me and attacked me from behind. A woman, who was walking behind me, witnessed everything and called the police. But the police didn't come and she took me to the police station."
Bengaluru Police Commissioner MN Reddi claimed that men who allegedly assaulted Samuel were drunk.
"The three people were drunk. When they came across Samuel, there was an altercation. I don't want to delve into to what extent it (the incident) was occasioned by the fact he is from the north-east," said Mr Reddi.
Bengaluru is home to lakhs of people from the north-east, but the city witnessed an exodus of people from the north-east a few years ago, triggered by a spate of rumours.
Samuel, however, feels there was a racial angle to the attack.
"They teased me, definitely like (I was) an outsider," he said.
His uncle Dr T L Haukip added, "Three local guys assaulted him and called him Chinese".
To encourage a feeling of safety, police have established inter-community groups at the police stations and have appointed a nodal officer specifically to deal with issues faced by people from the north-east.