North East students’ body demands capital punishment for Anjel Chakma’s killers in Dehradun

North East Students Organization (NESO) has demanded death penalty for the attackers who caused the death of Tripura student Anjel Chakma in Dehradun, Uttarakhand.

The region’s peak students community has also joined other organizations and rights groups in seeking anti-racist action that it believes will act as a deterrent.

In a memorandum addressed to Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Tuesday, December 30, 2025, NESO also demanded the establishment of at least one special police station to deal with cases related to racial discrimination and atrocities against people from the northeast.

The organization said that 24-year-old Anjel and his brother Michael were attacked and stabbed on December 9, and that Anjel died on December 26. This, he said, was because “they looked different from the rest of the Aryan race and were subjected to derogatory and degrading racist abuse.”

Condemning the attack, NESO said people in the northeast face such harassment in different parts of the country. He urged Mr. Dhami to intervene immediately so that the authorities take effective measures to ensure mental, social and physical safety to students and people in the northeast studying and residing in Dehradun and other parts of Uttarakhand.

The All India Chakma Students Union sent a letter to Mr. Dhami on Monday, December 29, 2025, requesting that the investigation into Anjel’s death be handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation and the hearing be shifted out of Uttarakhand, preferably to Delhi.

Tarun Prasad Chakma, father of the deceased, also appealed to the Uttarakhand government to ensure protection of people from the northeast in mainland India.

“My appeal is that what happened to my son should not happen to other children in the northeast. The northeast is also a part of India. We are Indians too,” he said.