Shaloni, in his late twenties, was beaten to death in Kotla in Delhi.
New Delhi:
A Naga man from Manipur was beaten to death, allegedly by a group of five or six men, in the heart of Delhi late last night.
The police said Salouni, a man in his late twenties who is a former Business Processing Outsourcing company or BPO employee, got into an altercation with the group of men, who had driven up in a white Maruti Alto near a daily needs store in Kotla Mubarakpur.
Salouni, the police said, was walking with two of his friends - one from Manipur and another from Bihar. When the attack took place, both the friends ran away, the police said, adding they received a call about the quarrel at about 2:30 am.
When the police reached the spot, they found Salouni had been beaten up. They took the injured man to the trauma centre at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences or AIIMS, where he was declared dead.
Salouni lived in Delhi's Munirka and was from Tonjoy village in Manipur's Senapati District. A case of murder has been registered. The police have seized a CCTV camera from the area and three people have been detained, say sources.
"It seems like a preplanned and unprovoked attack. Home Ministry will probe into the death," says Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju.
The death in similar circumstances of Nido Tania, a student from Arunachal Pradesh, early this year had led to street protests and a national debate on discrimination against Indians from the North East.
Nido, 20, was beaten with iron rods and sticks by a group of men after he had an altercation with a shopkeeper and others in Lajpat Nagar market, not far from Kotla Mubarakpur, in January.
Politicians across parties had at the time condemned his death and vowed to work with activists and students from the North East to address their recurring concerns of being racially targeted in Delhi and other cities.