Tura, Feb 22: Is Garo Hills heading towards lawlessness once again?
Well, that’s the question concerned minds have been pondering after what has been happening in the last two weeks where people dealing with trade and commerce are being picked off from roads and murdered when they fail or refuse to pay ransom.
Last week, on February 11th a broomstick trader from Assam who had come to Garo Hills to purchase the commodity was murdered in Damal Asim area of West Garo Hills by three men after he refused to pay extortion money demanded by them.
All three killers have been arrested and the body recovered from a forested area.
The victim, Asad Ali of Fakirganj, Dhubri district of Assam disappeared from Jangrapara area under Dadenggre civil sub division on February 11th prompting the family to alert police.
West Garo Hills police launched a quick investigation and in less than five days identified the main culprits, hailing from Damal Asim area itself, who were swiftly taken into custody on Wednesday.
Today, February 21st, the body of another Assam trader has been recovered from an abandoned coal mine in Jadigittim area of south Garo Hills after another case of kidnap for ransom that ended in cold blooded murder.
The betelnut trader from Krishnai area of Goalpara district in Assam, 51 year old Sudangshu Das, has for many years been trading in betelnut export from Garo Hills by collecting the crop from plantations and selling the dried supari nut for a profitable price in his state of Assam.
He was on one such business trip to South Garo Hills on February 17th when tragedy struck.
He disappeared on that fateful day in the Coal India region of Jadigittim, coal belt of Nangalbibra in South Garo Hills.
Last seen with a local man from the area, his family reportedly received a ransom demand but failed to communicate with the father.
South Garo Hills police arrested the man who accompanied Das, 32 year old Manthang N Marak of Rewak Songmong and his associates.
It was during police interrogation that Manthang confessed to kidnapping Das and murdering him in cold blood after he refused to get his family to pay ransom.
After murdering him, the killer dumped the body 200 feet deep inside an abandoned coal mine inside the forests of the Coal India mining region at Jadigittim under Era.Aning police outpost jurisdiction..
Police and search teams had to use high powered cranes to retrieve the body deep inside the mine on Monday before sending it for post mortem.
