Friends say Manipuri man was murdered, cops believe it was suicide

The body of a 23-year-old Manipuri man was found in a pool of blood near a three-storey building in TC Palya, KR Puram, East Bengaluru, around 7 am on Wednesday.

Sayao Ngasainao, of Longpi Kachui village in Ukhrul district of Manipur, may have accidentally slipped and fallen to death or committed suicide by jumping from the third floor of the building where most of the occupants are from the Northeast, police said. 

The pattern of injuries indicates either of the two possibilities, police said, quoting doctors who conducted the post-mortem. 

Police believe he committed suicide as he had received numerous phone calls from a woman that night, after which he threw his mobile phone off the terrace, as testified by his friends. He was also drunk at the time. Police have registered a case of unnatural death. 

But looking at the injuries, his friends from the Northeast suspect it was a murder. “There are wounds all over his body, especially in the face. One of his teeth is missing. A lot of blood splashed on the road 20 yards away whereas his body was found right next to the building. We believe he was assaulted and killed on he road,” said Dan Yangya, president of Tangkhul Student’s Union Bangalore (TKLB).

Police, however, do not suspect foul play. “We have questioned almost everybody in the building: his friends, neighbours and whoever he was talking to on phone. We have ruled out foul play,” Abdul Ahad, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Whitefield), said.

Ngasainao worked at a hotel in the city but stopped going to work a few months ago.