‘Thought it was a minor altercation’: Neighbour recalls the night Manipuri singer was killed

On the night of September 6, Chandan Miroda Devi heard commotion outside her ground-floor home in South Delhi's Kilokari village. She saw two men shouting and calling out to others, but assumed it was a minor altercation and did not intervene. It was later revealed that Manipuri singer Chongtham Vikram Singh, her neighbor, had been killed after allegedly being beaten to death by eight eatery workers.

Singh, 55, was chased and assaulted by the workers in the stair lobby before his death. The incident has deeply affected the North East community, with several holding a candlelight march in memory of Singh. Devi remembered Singh as a kind and pleasant man who greeted people with a smile, often reciprocating with shared vegetables from Manipur.

The incident has also brought attention to the discrimination faced by people from the Northeast in Delhi.