Murdered Manipuri scholar ‘was a reclusive, shy student’

Kengoo was found dead, his throat slit, inside his rented flat at Delhi’s Kotla Mubarakpur. Students at TISS organised a condolence meeting for Kengoo on Friday.

A Tangkhul himself, part of a Naga tribe living on the Indo-Myanmar border area and straddling Ukhrul district in Manipur, Kengoo did his doctorate thesis on the challenges and problems in higher education among Tangkhul Nagas. “Tangkhul Naga is one of the leading tribes in Manipur and is involved in the underground movement. The tribe is one of the most developed tribes in Manipur. Otherwise a calm and quiet person, Kengoo, however, spoke passionately about his tribe and would get agitated about issues concerning his tribe and people,” said Burman, who had visited Kengoo’s native village.

Burman said that Kengoo came from a very poor family and his parents sold trees to support his education and had later shifted from their village to Ukhrul township.

Burman, who guided Kengoo on his Phd programme for three years, said that unlike many students who struggled with their docotoral theseis work, Kengoo could finish it at one go, on time and with ease. “Once, when he went back to his home in Manipur and was delaying his PhD work, my wife called him and scolded him and asked him to come back and focus on finishing his thesis. He promptly came back and finished it at one go. That showed his determination to do well,” the professor recalled. Kengoo wanted to be a researcher and after finishing his PhD, he was doing research work for the Church and was also publishing his work in research jorunals.

Kengoo’s guide is not clear whether this was a hate or caste-killing. “He was staying at a flat in Kotla. Whether there were people who stayed in that area and harboured anti-northeast sentiments, is tough to say,” he said.

The former TISS student’s friends also describe him as a person who did not argue and always remained focused on his studies. “I knew him as a straightforward and calm person. He had a close knit friends’ group at TISS and besides them, he didn’t mingle much with others. He lived in his own world and did not believe in arguing,” said his friend Rakesh Khwairakpam, also from Manipur and a final year PhD student at TISS.

His roommate at TISS, Charan Basumatary from Assam, describes him as a good and caring person. “We were roommates for five years and not once did he quarrel with me in those five years. He was mostly engrossed in his research work and rarely went out, except for evening walks with some of us. Infact, on one or two occasions, when strangers on the street taunted him by calling him ‘Nepali’, he did feel bad, but even then he never fought with them. So I can’t even imagine Kengoo having personal issues with anyone,” said Basumatary, a final year PhD student at TISS.

“After he finished his PhD, we mostly kept in touch on Facebook. He loved cooking and I enjoyed the dishes he prepared. He was so caring that he never allowed me to cook, and always insisted that he would cook for his friends. He was one of the best person’s to have come in my life and I can’t erase those memories with him for five years as a roommate. He will always remain in my heart,” said an emotional Basumatary.

mihika.basu@expressindia.com