IMPHAL, Feb. 20 -- Vungzagin Valte, a prominent Kuki-Zo legislator and former Manipur minister, passed away at a private hospital in Gurugram on Friday following a nearly three-year battle with injuries sustained during the 2023 ethnic violence. He was 63.

Valte, a BJP MLA from Thanlon assembly seat in Pherzawl district, was brutally assaulted by a mob in Imphal on May 4, 2023, when he was returning from a meeting with then-chief minister N. Biren Singh, just as the state spiralled into ethnic conflict.

The three-time MLA had been in and out of critical care since the assault. Initially sent to Delhi after the 2023 attack, he underwent extensive treatment for over a year before returning to Manipur in April last year. However, his healt...