"Isn't That...?" Family Found Out About Meitei Man's Murder Through Video

The family of Mayanglambam Rishikanta Singh didn't know he had been staying in Manipur's Churachandpur district with his wife, a woman from the Kuki tribes, until the horrific viral video surfaced on social media, his family members and relatives said.

Suspected Kuki insurgents killed him, Rishikanta's sister M Ashalata Devi, 39, said in a police complaint before filing a first information report (FIR). NDTV has seen a copy of the complaint.

On camera, the insurgents shot dead the 31-year-old man point blank with an assault rifle. They made him stand on his knees and beg for his life, evident from the way he held his hands folded.

The killers then uploaded the video on social media in a bid to make the public angry and create fresh unrest on ethnic lines in Manipur when talks for normalcy, peace and government formation are going on, sources said. A text overlay on the video read: "no peace, no popular government".

The President's Rule in Manipur will complete one year in February.

Sanayaima, a neighbour of Rishikanta in Kakching Khunou, a town in central Manipur's valley region, said he and some locals first saw the viral video around the same time on Wednesday night.

"Rishikanta's family had not seen the video. We saw that it was indeed him. To come to that realisation was the most painful experience I have ever had. One of us called his family and told them there was a video of their boy. No family should go through this. It was not a mindless, out-of-control riot. It was a planned murder by terrorists," the neighbour said on the phone.

"It took some convincing for his father to see. 'Isn't that your boy', we asked. What else could we have done?" he added.

Protest in Manipur seeking justice for M Rishikanta Singh, who was killed on camera by suspected Kuki insurgents as per the police complaint

Singh worked in Nepal and had returned home in December 2025, his cousin Amarjit said on the phone. According to him, Rishikanta went to Churachandpur on December 19; sometime in mid-January he dialled his father and sent a few thousand rupees for treats; the money came from [his wife] Chingnu Haokip's account; his father thought he called from Nepal, and he did not inform his family he would go to Churachandpur.

Amarjit also said the family got to know he was in Churachandpur only after some people in their neighbourhood informed them about the viral video taken at night somewhere in Churachandpur, 65 km from the state capital Imphal.

'Got Call At 1.45 AM'

Ashalata, the murdered man's sister, in her police complaint for an FIR said she got a call on January 22 at 1.45 am from her sister-in-law and Churachandpur resident, Chingnu.

"she along with her husband/my younger brother... who had been staying with her at Tuibong village since 19/12/2025 was kidnapped by some unknown armed miscreants suspected to be Kuki militants from her house," Ashalata said in the police complaint.

"She further informed that they were taken to a secluded place by a four-wheeler vehicle while on the way she was thrown out of the vehicle and [they] took her husband/my brother toward [the] hill and shot him dead," she added.

NIA Probe, KNO's Denial

Manipur Governor AK Bhalla in a post on X announced the National Investigation Agency (NIA) will take over the case.

Investigators are said to have got some promising leads and "kinetic action" soon against them can't be ruled out, sources said.

Reports that Rishikanta's wife took permission from the Kuki National Organisation (KNO) and its Tuibong district headquarters to allow him to see her for a few days were incorrect, the KNO, an umbrella body of Kuki insurgents in talks with the Centre, has said.

The United Kuki National Army (UKNA), which is not part of the talks, is the key suspect in the killing of the man from the Meitei community, though local sources reported the UKNA leadership denied their involvement.

Kukis and Meiteis have not gone into each other's areas after ethnic violence broke out in May 2023.