Who was Chongtham Vikram Singh? The gifted Manipuri guitarist, killed over noise complaint in Delhi

For over 20 years, Chongtham Vikram Singh lived and breathed music in Delhi. He had started out playing lead guitar in bands back in Manipur, before eventually moving to Delhi where he took up teaching at the Delhi School of Music.

Along the way, he opened his own music school and took students at home, shaping young musicians the same way he had once been shaped. He wasn't just a teacher confined to a classroom, though. Singh performed with the Rock'n'Roots project alongside Rajasthani folk singer Mame Khan and collaborated with several other well-known names across concerts and cultural shows over the years.

He is remembered as one of the founding figures of Manipur's rock music movement, a scene he helped shape long before he made Delhi his home. He was originally from Thangmeiband Lourung Purel Leikai in Imphal West. In Delhi, he kept a low profile, but within the city's music circles, he was known and respected.

Singh came from a family steeped in the arts. His mother, Chongtham Ongbi Kamala Devi, is a well-known classical vocalist who sang in Matamgi Manipur, the first Manipuri feature film, back in 1972. She is now in her mid-eighties and still lives in Imphal, where she continues to teach master classes with filmmaker-composer Aribam Syam Sharma.

His family's connection to the arts didn't end there. Singh was also a cousin of Lakshmipriya Devi, the director of Boong, the film that made history this year as the first Indian film to win a BAFTA, taking home the Best Children's and Family Film award at the 79th British Academy Film Awards.

Family members say the trouble started late on Sunday night. A group of men had gathered outside Singh's home in Kilokari and were drinking and creating a disturbance. Around 11 pm, Singh went downstairs to ask them to keep it down.

That's when things turned violent. The men, said to be drunk, allegedly attacked him, beating him badly. His family, inside the house, heard him banging on the door and calling out to be let in. His son, 20-year-old Yaiphaba, found him semi-conscious, his shirt torn.

He was rushed to Holy Family Hospital in Okhla, but doctors couldn't save him. His blood pressure had dropped so low that surgery wasn't possible, and he died around 6:30 am on Monday. Doctors said the cause of death was hemorrhagic shock from blunt-force trauma.

Police at Sunlight Colony police station received a PCR call about the assault on September 7. Southeast Delhi's Deputy Commissioner of Police, Vineet Kumar, said all seven adult suspects have been arrested, along with one minor.

Most of them, aged between 19 and 36, work as delivery agents in the area, while others are employed at nearby dhabas and food stalls. The killing has sparked outrage within Delhi's Northeast community. Members of the North East Students' Society and other civil society groups gathered outside Sunlight Colony police station demanding strict action.

Former Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh reacted to the news, expressing grief and asking police to investigate thoroughly and swiftly. Manipuri activist Binalaxmi Nepram, who stood by the family through the ordeal, said she stayed with Singh's wife, brother and members of the Manipur community right until the post-mortem was completed late that night.

Politicians have also spoken out. Congress leaders and Manipur MP Bimol Akoijam called for exemplary punishment for those responsible, with many framing the case as part of a larger issue around how people from India's Northeast are treated elsewhere in the country.