Imphal:
Manipur Chief Minister Ibobi Singh has urged his Karnataka counterpart D V Sadananda Gowda to expedite the investigation into the mysterious death of Manipuri student Richard Loitam in a Bangalore college hostel last month. On the sidelines of the chief ministers' meeting on National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) in New Delhi on Friday, he asked Mr Gowda to personally look into the matter.
The Karnataka Chief Minister assured Ibobi singh that all steps would be taken by his government to probe the death of the 19-year-old Manipuri student who was found dead in his hostel bed on the afternoon of April 18 after a reported quarrel with two other students, who allegedly knocked him on the face and head. Official sources said Senior Superintendent of Police P Dhanakumar has reached Bangalore to probe the matter jointly with the Karnataka Police.
The police had earlier registered a case of an unnatural death, but after several protests in Bangalore and New Delhi, a case of murder has been booked. Two students have been booked on charges of murder, though no arrests have been made yet as the police are still waiting for the forensic report.
Rejecting the contention that students from the north eastern states are subjected to discrimination and racial profiling, Home Minister P Chidambaram said that the Government will take every step to ensure their security and asked states to do the same. Mr Chidambaram said the state governments were primarily responsible for the prevention of crimes arising out of discrimination, adding, the Centre accorded "highest importance to development of north-eastern region as well as prevention of atrocities against Schedule Tribe and will not countenance discrimination in any form."
Referring to the recent deaths of Richard Loitam in Bangalore and Dana Sangma in Gurgaon near Delhi besides allegations of racial profiling against Tibetans during the recent BRICS summit, he said these have caused disquiet and agitation among the community, specially students from the region. He said the police are investigating the deaths of both Richard Loitam and Dana Sangma after registering cases and conducting post-mortems.