"In Heat Of Moment, Confusion": Cop On Tripura Student's Death In Dehradun

The fatal attack on Dehradun student Anjel Chakma, 24-year-old from Tirpura, happened in the heat of the moment, a senior cop said Tuesday, adding there was no intention to kill him.

"It happened in the heat of the moment, in a state of confusion. The group of students, six in number, became very angry and attacked (him) impulsively. There was no intention to kill. The way the death occurred is very tragic," Ajai Singh, Senior Superintendent of Police, Dehradun, said today at a press conference.

The officer said police had taken note of social media posts attributing a racial motive to the incident. "Our investigation so far has found no evidence of racial discrimination or violence," the officer said.

"Basically, this incident happened on December 9th, between 6 and 7 pm. There are six accused, and five have been arrested. They had gathered for a birthday party, and the victim and his brother also happened to be there. After our interrogation and witness accounts, we found that the group of six people were joking around and taunting each other," the cop said.

"The victim and his brother were standing nearby in the crowd. It appeared that someone had taunted them for some reason. A heated argument ensued, and in the heat of the moment, one of the accused attacked the victim with a sharp object. Then, another person, using a small knife taken from an egg cart, stabbed him in the back," the officer said.

The victim was taken in an e-rickshaw by his brother to the hospital. He died on December 26 after being hospitalised for 17 days.

The senior cop, narrating the sequence of events, played down the racial angle in the attack on the MBA student, saying there have been no reports of any racial attack in the last two years.

"More than 2,000 students are from the northeastern states here, and 250 of them are from Tripura. According to our records, in the two and a half years I've been here, there hasn't been a single incident of a racial attack reported from any college or school. There has never been this kind of tension, nor have we received any complaints," the officer stressed.

The officer said statements of local residents have been recorded and digital evidence, including CCTV footage, has been collected.

"So far, no instance of any accused using racial slurs against the victim has come to light," he said.

The victim's father, a BSF jawan currently posted in Tangjeng in Manipur, had alleged that his son was "brutally attacked" when he tried to defend his brother, who faced racial slurs and was called "Chinese" by the attackers.

The attackers called his sons "Chinese momo" and taunted them with other racial abuses, the father of the victim told news agency PTI over the phone.

Anjel told them that he "was also Indian, not Chinese" but they attacked him with knives and blunt objects, the devastated father said.