Manipuri teenager's death: Arrest of suspects demanded

Amid growing public outcry over the death of Manipuri student Loitam Richard, who died under suspicious circumstances in his college hostel in Bengaluru last month, a former minister from the northeastern state on Tuesday demanded immediate arrest of those behind the "killing".

Manipur's Communist Party of India secretary and former Arts and Culture Minister M Nara Singh, who met Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda on Monday, said he was happy with his assurance that the suspects in the killing would be nabbed.

Singh said Gowda would address students from northeast in Karnataka in the next couple of days.

He said prima facie evidence and circumstances had pointed to severe assault all over Richard's body. Singh alleged that there had been "considerable and intentional delay by the college authorities" in filing a report to police regarding the incident.

He said though police had registered a case of unnatural death, evidences indicated that it was a case of murder.             "There are adequate prima facie evidence that Loitam suffered grievous and fatal injuries in the beating incident and died of these injuries."

Richard, a second semester student of Acharya NRV School of Architecture, was found dead on his hostel bed on the afternoon of April 18.

While police have maintained he died in a two-wheeler accident on April 16, his friends insist he died due to injuries after a severe assault by seniors on April 17. The death sparked off protests in Bengaluru and New Delhi with protesters demanding justice for Loitam.