New Delhi: A 28-year-old call centre employee from Manipur was allegedly beaten to death by five persons in the heart of Delhi late on Sunday, in what appears to be a hate crime.

Some students from India’s Northeast allege that Shaloni was returning from work when he picked up an argument with five men who were in a white car. They then allegedly assaulted him. He was taken to the hospital by the police where he succumbed to injuries.

According to police, Shaloni was walking with two of his friends — one from Manipur and another from Bihar — when the attack took place. However, both friends ran away after the quarrel broke out. On receiving the call past midnight, the police attended the scene and found Shaloni in a pool of blood. They took him to the trauma centre at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), where he was declared dead.

A case of murder has been registered. The police have seized footage from a CCTV camera from the Kotla Mubarakpur area and identified a few suspects. The body has been kept at AIIMS for the post mortem.

Reacting to the tragic incident, Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju described it as “a pre-planned and unprovoked attack.”

“We are looking into the killing. It seems planned to me. The Home Ministry will probe into Shaloni’s death and justice shall be meted out to him and his family,” Rijiju said.

Various groups of people, particularly from the Northeast have experienced forms of racial discrimination and highlighted cases of racism in India.

The death in similar circumstances of Nido Tania, a student from Arunachal Pradesh, early this year led to street protests and a national debate on discrimination against Indians from the Northeast.

Nido, 20, was beaten with iron rods and sticks by a group of men after he had an altercation with a shopkeeper and others in Lajpat Nagar market in January.

Nido was assaulted after he protested against the shopkeeper’s taunts about his physical appearance. Nido was the son of Nido Pavitra, a Congress leader and parliamentary secretary in the health and family welfare department of the government of Arunachal Pradesh.

Political leaders across all political parties had at the time condemned his death and vowed to work with activists from the Northeast to address their recurring concerns of being racially targeted in Delhi and other cities.

“Racism and discrimination are natural by-products of organised society. It could be argued that they are in fact human traits. The only solution is better law enforcement and education. The legislation has to be clear and not ambiguous and the law enforcement agencies have to do their job in accordance to the letter of the law. The society must make concerted efforts to remove the misconceptions its various components have of each other,” said Yumnak Meitei, a social activist from Manipur.

In 2007, the Delhi Police made efforts to solve the problems of security faced by the Northeasterners in Delhi, particularly women, by coming up with a booklet entitled ‘Security Tips for Northeast Students’ asking Northeastern women not to wear “revealing dresses” and giving kitchen tips on preparing bamboo shoot, akhuni, and “other smelly dishes” without “creating ruckus in neighbourhood.”

“India is probably the only country in the face of planet earth where we discriminate our own people the most. In other countries racism is usually shown towards foreigners. In our country, every person from out of state is literally a foreigner to the other state. With people from the Northeast, for various reasons, the rest of India has not had that much interaction. This is not a choice we made, but just how things turned out. Because of their Mongoloid features, it is easy to stereotype them,” adds Meitei.