Post mortem has made it clear it is homicide, says Richard's mother
The reported bludgeoning to death of a Manipuri boy in Bangalore has aggravated a simmering discontent and the sense of discrimination among northeast students studying in other States.
The charge of police inaction in Richard Loitam's case has triggered protests in all big cities, and police and public leaders are worried that this incident may be exploited by some elements to intensify the campaign against migrant workers in this region.
Prompted by the growing clamour for justice, Manipur Home Minister G. Gaihangam has written to his Karnataka counterpart, urging action. But there has been no response.
On Sunday, a sit-in and candlelight vigil were held in many cities, including Imphal.
Vidyapati Loitam, mother of the 19-year-old student of the Acharya's NRV School of Architecture, said the post mortem report had made clear that it was a case of homicide. “We demand justice,” she said, addressing those who had assembled to mourn her son. Students from all northeastern States have joined the protests in many cities.
The police worry over reprisal campaigns being mounted in Nagaland, Manipur and Meghalaya to weed out foreigners and outsiders. While there is a demand in Manipur for reintroduction of the Inner Line Permit System to screen such persons, Meghalaya has opened cells in all districts to detect them. Several organisations in Nagaland have expressed concern at the presence of foreigners and outsiders in some towns.
In Manipur, several migrant workers have been shot dead in the past 20 years. Some militant groups have asked house owners not to let out rooms to these labourers. The police have advised them not to go out of the city limits.
Three Manipuris were molested and mugged in Delhi on the night of April 27. Modhu Chandra, spokesperson of the North East Support Centre and Helpline, in a statement, said a Tangkhul tribal girl was returning home from her office at Gurgaon, when two persons molested her. On hearing her screams, some tribal boys rushed to her rescue. But local residents beat them up, saying they had raised a false alarm. The police refused to register a case, alleges Mr. Chandra.
The same night a Tangkhul tribal boy, Joshua Muivah, was robbed of his cash and all valuables and beaten up while returning home from office.
The Vasant Vihar police have registered a case. Another Manipuri boy was also mugged and his cash and valuables were snatched. In this instance also, no arrest was made.
Keywords: Richard Loitam's case, Manipuri student case
A judicial investigation into these incidents and police response to these incidents is needed to determine if incidents of assaults against people from the North East are racially motivated and whether the law enforcement agencies are institutionally racist.
Just as there is migration of people to other countries, there are migrations within the country by people from all different states and union-territories. If any one section of the people or their police force is not vigilant enough to take care of their migrant population, it can only be expected that the migrant population from that particular region face similar harassment elsewhere. Migration of people is an inevitable fall out of rapid developments in industry, trade and economy of the world. If the trend of harassing migrants is not checked and reversed, it will have very serious repercussions all over the world.
I hope other people in Bangalore and Gurgaon/Delhi are also as angry with the criminals (and police inaction) as people from the northeastern states.
The men who committed these atrocities are murderers and they seem to have picked on some victims because of the notion that they are from outside the state and may not be able to defend themselves. However, murderers/rapists aren't going to be selective (with regard to language, state etc.) in their targets. Many of them must have already perpetrated similar crimes with local women/men who couldn't fight back and they will repeat it with other women/men as well.
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