Delayed police action gives suspect time to escape
From Our Correspondent
TURA: Term it as lack of co-operation between police from both states or delay in taking action but the prime suspect in the ritualistic murder of a seven-year-old child inside the BSF campus in Praharinagar, Tura has gone missing from his home in Mancachar town of Dhubri district in Assam ever since police teams first went in to take him into custody for questioning.
The alleged tantrik Lukman Haqib has gone missing from Mankachar after Assam police released him on a PR Bond from Hatsingimari police station, 30 kms from Mankachar town on Friday.
When a police team from Garo Hills was first dispatched to bring in the god man his supporters, allegedly at the behest of the local AIUDF MLA, forced the Assam police to release him on the PR bond.
A mob of four thousand people surrounded the police station and refused to allow the police to take their self-styled god man into custody forcing the police to return to Tura empty handed.
The Shillong Times has obtained detailed information that the self-styled godman or tantrik Lukman Haqib resides in Kushnimara locality near Jaodanga of Mankachar town. He runs a grocery store and also acts as an imam teaching the Koran to young children.
Interestingly, the tantrik also happens to be an agent for a finance agency called Golden Trust and Financial Services limited of Kolkata, West Bengal. The same company faced a case in the State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission by an appellant Smt. Sushila Pal way back in 2008-09.
The prime accused tantrik’s house has been under lock and key in Mankachar since the time the Meghalaya police first tried to obtain his custody last week. His wife and children also remain untraced.
The disappearance of the god man will be a severe blow to the entire investigation on a case that medical doctors and police believe to be the first case of child sacrifice ever to be reported in the Garo Hills.
The system in which the Assam police acted in failing to get the accused into custody will also raise many troubling questions on the credibility of the force in that neighbouring state.