From Manipur Chief Minister Yumnam Khemchand Singh and former CM N. Biren Singh to Congress MP Bimol Akoijam and Assam CM Conrad Sangma, leaders have condemned the killing and urged Delhi Police to ensure justice.
BY PC Bureau
September 8, 2026: The killing of veteran Manipuri guitarist and music teacher Chongtham Vikram Singh in southeast Delhi has triggered growing political and community outrage, with leaders from Manipur, Opposition figures and Northeast organisations demanding swift and exemplary punishment for those responsible.
A candlelight march was held in Kilokari on Monday evening, with nearly 100 people from the Northeast gathering to demand justice for the 55-year-old musician. Community members also protested outside Sunlight Colony police station, pressing the police to ensure that the investigation is prompt and impartial.
Chongtham Vikram Singh ji, a renowned musician from Manipur, went downstairs to ask some men to lower the noise outside his home. He was beaten to death for it.
A father, killed outside his own home, in his own country’s capital. After many such incidents, every Northeast family…
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) September 8, 2026
Singh died early Monday after he was allegedly attacked by a group of men following an argument over noise and disturbance outside his home in Kilokari village, near Ashram. According to the preliminary police account, Singh had gone downstairs at around 11.30 pm on Sunday after objecting to shouting and other nuisance allegedly involving delivery workers and dhaba staff.
Manipuri musician was killed in Delhi. Arrests won’t bring him back. While the PM talks of unity, people from the Northeast are still unsafe in the capital itself. If ‘Sabka Saath’ means anything, mainland India needs to answer why Manipur still bleeds and fears. pic.twitter.com/HSBUc1XhfP
— Nilakshi Rabhaa (@NilakshiRabhaIN) September 7, 2026
The confrontation escalated and Singh was allegedly chased and assaulted. His son Yaiphaba took him to Holy Family Hospital, where he succumbed to injuries. Police have arrested seven adults and apprehended a 15-year-old boy. The accused have been identified as Bharat Kumar, Pramod, Ramzan Khan, Deepanshu, Mohan Vishwakarma, Vijay and Mannu. Police said several worked as delivery or packaging workers at nearby dhabas, while one worked at a pizza kiosk.
Political outrage
Leader Of Oppostion Rahul Gandhi joined Manipur Chief Minister Yumnam Khemchand Singh in expressing grief over the death and recalled Vikram’s contribution to the State’s music and cultural life.
” A father, killed outside his own home, in his own country’s capital. After many such incidents, every Northeast family in Delhi is asking the same question today – are we safe here? What are Shah’s MHA and Delhi Police doing to stop this growing lawlessness, especially against people from the Northeast?,” Rahul Gandhi said in a post on X.
“I am deeply saddened by the untimely demise of renowned guitarist Shri Chongtham Vikram,” the Chief Minister said, adding that Singh’s contribution to music and Manipur’s cultural life would be remembered with respect.
Former Manipur Chief Minister N. Biren Singh demanded swift action and a thorough investigation. Describing Singh as a pioneer of Western music in Manipur, Biren Singh said evidence had emerged in connection with the incident and urged Delhi Police to ensure that justice was delivered at the earliest. He also tagged Delhi Police and Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta in his post.
Lok Sabha member Bimol Akoijam called for exemplary punishment for those responsible.
“Whether a person is from India’s Northeast or the so-called ‘mainstream’ or ‘mainland’ India, life with dignity matters,” Akoijam said, stressing that those responsible must face exemplary punishment. He said his office had been coordinating with police, medical authorities, volunteers and Singh’s family and that the Deputy Commissioner of Police had informed him that eight accused had been apprehended.
Congress leader Pawan Khera also criticised the broader environment in which the killing occurred, accusing the State and Union governments of creating what he called a “culture of impunity”. Khera argued that while the government did not wield the weapon or deliver the blows that killed Singh, authorities could not escape responsibility for an environment in which rules against public nuisance were allegedly not enforced consistently.
Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma has also condemned the incident, saying it had reopened painful memories of discrimination and violence faced by people from the Northeast in Delhi and calling for strict action.
The heart of India, Delhi, has now become an example of chaos.
In Delhi, Manipur musician C. Vikram Singh was beaten to death.
Outside Vikram’s house, some delivery boys and dhaba (roadside eatery) workers were making noise. When Vikram Singh objected and asked them to keep… pic.twitter.com/nFQBi9ZNQ6
— Shruti Dhore (@ShrutiDhore) September 8, 2026
Community anger and the race question
The killing has particularly unsettled the Northeast community in Delhi because of Singh’s identity as a Manipuri and because of the long history of complaints from Northeastern residents about discrimination, racial abuse and violence in the capital.
Some members of the community have alleged that Singh may have been targeted because he was from the Northeast. Northeast student organisations and civil society groups have demanded that every possible motive be examined.
But the police have so far stopped short of calling it a hate crime.
Delhi Police have said the preliminary inquiry points to an altercation over shouting and nuisance outside Singh’s residence. The circumstances and motive remain under investigation, and no racial motive has been established so far.
That distinction is important. The fact that the victim was Manipuri and that the killing has revived longstanding concerns within the Northeast community does not by itself establish a racial motive. Equally, the possibility cannot be ruled out until the investigation examines the circumstances comprehensively.
A musician who shaped Manipur’s rock scene
Singh’s death has also sent shock waves through Manipur’s cultural and music fraternity.
A pioneer of the State’s Western music movement, he played lead guitar with bands including Ultra Vires, Phoenix and Eastern Dark. He later moved to Delhi, where he spent nearly two decades teaching music and ran a music school. He was also associated with the Delhi School of Music and cultural projects involving musicians from across India.
He was the son of celebrated Manipuri classical vocalist Chongtham Ongbi Kamala Devi and a cousin of filmmaker Lakshmipriya Devi, director of Boong, which became India’s first film to win a BAFTA.
For the Manipuri community, therefore, this is not merely another Delhi murder case. It is the death of a musician who helped shape a generation of Manipur’s popular music and spent much of his later life teaching young people in the capital.
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Police investigation
Delhi Police have registered a murder case under Section 103(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita along with other provisions. The section applies to murder committed by a group of five or more persons acting in concert in specified circumstances, including grounds such as race, caste, community, sex, place of birth, language or personal belief.
Investigators have examined CCTV footage and used technical surveillance and local intelligence to identify the suspects. CCTV footage reportedly captures the accused leaving the spot after the assault, while Singh was subsequently carried downstairs by his family.
Senior police officers have met Singh’s family and members of the Manipuri community and assured them of prompt and lawful action.
The arrests may have brought the immediate investigation into sharper focus, but they have not ended the questions being raised by the community.
The demand now is straightforward: establish exactly what happened that night, determine whether the assault was solely the result of a dispute over noise or involved any element of identity-based targeting, and ensure that those responsible face the full force of the law.
For a community that has repeatedly complained of feeling vulnerable in India’s capital, the case has become about more than one brutal death.
It has become a test of whether justice in Delhi is truly blind to where its victims come from.
