Tripura Student Murder: PIL Filed in Supreme Court
Agartala, Dec 29: In the wake of the horrific attack and death of a student from Tripura in Dehradun, a public interest litigation (PIL) has been moved in the Supreme Court, urging immediate judicial action to address what it terms a “persistent constitutional failure” in tackling racially driven violence against people from India’s North-Eastern states.
Filed under Article 32 of the Constitution, the petition draws attention to the death of Angel Chakma, who passed away on December 26 after suffering severe injuries in a violent assault in Dehradun’s Selaqui locality earlier this month.
Chakma, a final-year MBA student enrolled at a university in Uttarakhand, was allegedly targeted in a racially motivated attack on December 9.
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The petition recounts Chakma’s last recorded words during the altercation, when he reportedly said, “We are not Chinese… We are Indians. What certificate should we show to prove that?” The plea noted that this statement “tragically marked his final assertion of constitutional identity before the violence turned fatal.”
Citing earlier cases, including the 2014 killing of Nido Taniam, the petition asserted that Angel Chakma’s death is “not a standalone occurrence but part of a prolonged pattern of racial violence” against citizens from the North-East, a reality previously acknowledged by the Union government in responses to Parliament.
Arguing its case, the PIL stated that despite clear indicators of hate and racial bias, such incidents are routinely treated as conventional criminal offences, leading to the loss of motive-based scrutiny and weakening their constitutional significance.
It further pointed out that the existing criminal justice framework lacks any mechanism at the initial stage to identify racial crimes as a separate constitutional violation, a gap that, according to the petition, enables a cycle of impunity.
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The plea also highlighted that even after the introduction of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, and the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, the law still does not provide statutory recognition of hate or racial crimes, nor does it mandate recording bias motives at the FIR stage or establish specialised investigation and victim-support systems.
Because of these gaps, the petition argued, racially motivated violence continues to violate Articles 14, 15, 19 and 21 of the Constitution and erodes the constitutional principle of fraternity enshrined in the Preamble.
The PIL has therefore sought enforceable guidelines to formally recognise racially motivated violence as a distinct constitutional wrong and to ensure meaningful protection of dignity, equality and fraternity for every citizen.
Reaffirming the Uttarakhand government’s solidarity with the victim’s family, CM Dhami said he would stay in constant contact with the Tripura Chief Minister to ensure that all possible support is extended to them. (With inputs from IANS)