Manipur student's death: Youngsters rally for justice

BANGALORE: Hundreds of stu dents turned up at a rally at Town Hall on Sunday, dema nding justice and transparent investigation into the alleged murder of 19-year-old Loitam Richard, a student of Acharya NRV College of Architecture near Hessaraghatta.
A first-year B Arch student Loitam was a native of Im phal, Manipur. He was found dead in his hostel room at Madanayakanahalli on Tum kur Road on April 17.
A Facebook page hosted by activist Monika Khangembam for the cause of students' se curity had mobilized opinion among youth in the city against the tardy probe into Loitam's killing.
The 'Justice-For-Richard Group' has already submitted a memorandum to PM Man mohan Singh, pointing to mis leading reports about Loitam being a suicide or drug abuse victim. '' Loitam was not real ly taken to the hospital and how could the hostel doctor declare him dead? Preliminary reports did not suggest any drugs or toxins in the blood; the man agement is trying to hush up the case despite there being three witnesses giving their statements to police,'' said Monika . Two seniors allegedly punched Loitam on his head after he changed the TV channel which other students were watching. Police interrogated Sayeed Afzal Ali and Vivek Banerjee, two inmates of the hostel, but released them.
A family friend of Loitam who did not want to be named said he was too shocked that the teenager had died such a pathetic death.
Rahul Prasad from Juvenile Care, an NGO, said: '' I have come here to study; no one has the right to beat me up if I switch off TV,'' he said.
The postmortem report was inconclusive and his viscera samples and body parts have been sent for chemical analysis and histopathological examination, respectively.