The trigger: Hair colour Jan 29: Nido Taniam goes to Lajpat Nagar with a friend and asks some shop workers for an address. Some of them allegedly mock him for his blonde hair Irked, the BA I student smashes the shop’s glass counter and is thrashed by seven-eight persons. Badly injured, he is taken away by friends after the cops intervene Taniam gets a tetanus shot, has a cup of coffee and goes to sleep around 1 am, never to wake up

New Delhi, January 31
The son of an Arunachal Pradesh MLA died here after he was allegedly beaten up by some shopkeepers following an altercation sparked by taunts on his hair colour. Social activists and twitter remarks see the incident as yet another case of North-East people increasingly becoming a target of attacks in different parts of the country.

The police have registered a case of murder and arrested two shopkeepers while the Delhi Government has recommended a magisterial probe. Nido Tanian, son of Congress MLA, Nido Pavitra, died on Thursday, a day after he was thrashed by shopkeepers in South Delhi’s Lajpat Nagar following an altercation, the police said. His relatives said the shopkeepers made fun of his hairstyle, leading to the fracas.