No evidence so far of racial abuse in Tripura student’s death, says Dehradun Police
Dehradun (PTI): The Dehradun Police on Tuesday said the probe into the death of Tripura student Anjel Chakma has so far found no evidence of racial abuse, and that the youth was assaulted after tempers flared up when he objected to some "banter" among the attackers who had come in a group to a liquor shop.
Dehradun Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Ajay Singh said the 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 SSP said.
He said that between December 9, the day of the incident, and December 26, when Anjel died, no complaints of racial abuse were made during interactions with the police. The SSP added that the FIR filed in the case "does not mention any allegations of racial bias."
Providing details of the incident that occurred in the Selaqui area, Singh said a birthday party was hosted on December 9 by one of the accused, Suraj Khwas, a resident of Manipur.
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"There was some banter among the guests. The victim’s side found certain remarks offensive, which led a dispute. In the fight that followed, Anjel Chakma and his brother Michael Chakma were injured. Anjel died during treatment at a hospital," the SSP said, adding that Anjel had suffered fatal injuries to his spine and neck in the incident.
The SSP said five of the six accused named in the FIR taken into custody. Two of them were found to be underage and sent to correction home, while three are under judicial custody. The other accused, Yagyraj Awasthi (22), a Nepalese national, who had earlier worked in Haridwar and other places, is absconding.
"Our teams are working to trace him," he said, adding that a bounty of Rs 25,000 has been announced on his name and a non-bailable warrant has been issued.
Singh 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 deceased has come to light," he said.
The SSP added that the investigation is being carried out fairly and in a transparent manner, and that strict legal action will be taken accordingly.
Anjel Chakma, a final-year MBA student at a private university here, was seriously injured when he was allegedly attacked by some youngsters with a knife and a bracelet on December 9. He died on December 26, after being hospitalised for 17 days.
His 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 assailants called his sons "Chinese momo" and hurled other racial abuses, the father of the victim told 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.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
