Police did not file case initially, says minister

Minister of State for Minority Affairs Ninong Ering Friday alleged that police did not file a complaint initially and said there was a compromise reached between the Arunachal Pradesh student and the shopkeepers who assaulted him.

Nido Taniam, 19, son of Nido Pavitra, a Congress legislator from Arunachal Pradesh, was assaulted by shopkeepers in what is being termed as a "racial attack" in south Delhi's Lajpat Nagar I area Wednesday. They young student died of his injuries Thursday morning.

"I went to the police station with chief resident commissioner and other officers. They said they knew about the incident but obviously they did not expect the boy to die. So, they did not register the case," Ering said.

"They took the case in a very casual way and said there was a compromise reached between the boy and the shopkeepers," Ering said.

"I had first gone to the hospital and there was no police personnel there. When I asked the hospital people, they said that they had already taken the body to the mortuary. So, I could not get the details on the condition of the body," Ering added.

The minister said the shopkeepers made fun of his hairstyle and his red colour pant.

"The boy got annoyed and asked why they were laughing at him as he was just asking for an address. They again laughed and the boy got angry and hit a table. As the table was made of glass, it broke," he said.

As the glass broke, the shopkeeper called him "jungli" and beat him up.

"Through the police personnel I came to know that a PCR van arrived and picked him up and took him to the police station. The boy could have been slightly afraid and he also paid a fine of Rs.10,000 for the broken glass," Ering added.