SHILLONG: East Khasi Hills police are verifying the statement of Rajiv Kumar, who claims that his shop was burnt in (Bara Bazar) on Sunday afternoon due to a petrol bomb attack
Speaking to media persons here on Monday, East Khasi Hills, SP Davis Marak said that as per the statement of Rajiv Kumar, three-four people came to him and asked him to hand over the keys of the shop and he and his staff ran away from the spot.
His helper told a patrolling party in the Jeep stand and even police teams reached the spot to find that the shop was locked from outside and smoking was coming out from the shop
“Police thought that it was a case of short circuit but according to the statement of Kumar, this was arson,” he said
Marak said that as per the statement of the shopkeeper, within five minutes, the miscreants went inside the shop burnt it came out and locked the shutter and left the place
“The incident does not seem to be tallying with the statement which he is giving but we have recorded the statement and investigation is to find out if it was a case of arson or something else,” Marak said.
On Monday too, a team of Shillong police went to the shop to collect evidence from the spot and verify the statements of the shopkeeper
The massive fire which broke out in Iewduh (Bara Bazar) on Sunday afternoon created panic in an otherwise sensitive area due to the ongoing situation.
Reacting to a query about the overall law and order situation in the city, Marak said that the situation was under control but tense and police believed that there was a lot of under current.
“We believe situation is not fully normal and even small incident can spark into major law and order problems and hence there is night curfew wand deployment of police is many places,” Marak added.
When asked about the misuse of social media to spread rumours, he said that police had given an appeal to the people to desist from believing in fake news and rumours and police hves also registered some cases and investigation was on to identify those who spread rumours in social media.
