Tripura student murder: Dehradun SSP denies racial angle, says fight began over joke

In an exclusive interview with India Today TV, Dehradun SSP Ajai Singh denied alleged racial angle in the killing of Tripura student Angel Chakma. Singh denied the incident was a hate crime, stating, ‘It's not easy to tell if that it was a racial conflict because the one of the accused was from the same region.’ He said that the accused group included individuals from Manipur, Nepal, and a local Scheduled Tribe (Boxa). The SSP attributed the fatal clash to a ‘sudden provocation’ while the groups were ‘cracking jokes’ at a canteen. He confirmed five arrests and mentioned one accused had fled to Nepal.