Our Bureau
Rights panels seek speedy action • GSU calls protest rally in Williamnagar
TURA/SHILLONG: Mystery surrounds the death of 15-year-old girl in Williamnagar though her step father, who was arrested by the police, is the prime suspect now.
The deceased was a student of Sacred Heart HS School of Kusimkolgre, William Nagar.
The mutilated and decomposed body of the girl identified as Grikchina N.Sangma was recovered from a forest area located about 5 km away from Williamnagar town. The girl had been reported missing since September 28.
Expressing concern over the nature of the crime, the GSU has decided to organize a protest rally at Williamnagar Government College on Wednesday. Besides GSU, All India Garo Union, FAF and Indigenous Citizens’ Forum of Simsanggre also condemned the incident and extended support to the protest rally.
Police are looking into all angles of the crime as it was the step father Rashu N Marak who initially filed the FIR about the missing of his daughter.
In the FIR, Marak had stated that he had taken his daughter for medical check-up at Williamnagar bazar. When she complained of dizziness, the father hired an auto-rickshaw to take his daughter home since he had to meet some person in the bazaar.
“However, on reaching home I found that my daughter had not reached home,” the step father had claimed.
The version of the step father has given rise to suspicion which prompted the mother of the girl to lodge an FIR on October 3 which led to the step father’s arrest.
It is yet to be known what sickness had afflicted the girl and what made the step father to send her back home alone after she suffered from dizziness.
Police are also looking into the angle of rape, but since the body is decomposed, it is not known whether the post-mortem report can reveal any sexual crime. The post-mortem was carried out on Sunday.
The East Garo Hills Superintendent of Police), Davies Nestell R Marak said on Monday that there are no new developments in the murder of the girl.
Though the police arrested the step father of the girl, they claimed that there were no new developments or confessions by the accused. “There are no new developments or confessions forthcoming from the accused. However, that is how it always is, it is up to us to find out the truth,” Marak said over phone.
When asked if it was true that the body had been decapitated and burnt and its arms and legs cut off as reported in the media, the SP said that that could not be confirmed as the body was in an advanced stage of decomposition and the body parts had been consumed by wild animals.
He added that the body may have looked like it was burnt as it had turned black due to the decomposition process. Interestingly, the step father had filed an FIR on the same day when the victim had gone missing.
The General Secretary of the GSU, East Zone, Rockyfieler M Sangma said over phone that the union met the family members of the victim and also went to the Williamnagar police station.
However, as the case is presently under investigation in which the father is merely a suspect, both the police and the family members have declined to make any comments
Women’s Commission demand : Meanwhile, the Meghalaya State Commission for Women has asked the State Government and the law enforcers to immediately take stern and legal action against the perpetrator of crime.
“The matter as reported in the state and national media has once again put our society to shame,” the Chairperson of Women’s Commission Theilin Phanbuh said on Monday. “The Meghalaya State Commission for Women views seriously with deep concern, anguish and pain over this news and strongly condemns the inhuman and ghastly nature of the act. The crimes against women and girls are increasing day by day, for how long we can tolerate these acts of violence by the criminals”, she said.
Meanwhile, the Chairperson of State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (SCPCR), Meena Kharkongor, while expressing anguish over the incident, asked the police to ensure that the culprit is identified and punished at the earliest.