From Our Correspondent
TURA: Garo Hills Police busted an armed gang which had been involved in a botched kidnapping attempt leading to the death of a trader from Paikan village near Krishnai who was shot dead near Chokpot after his family failed to pay ransom money of Rs 1.5 lakh.
The breakthrough came during a random checking of vehicles for militants by Tura Police at 12 Mile, on the road to Chokpot in South Garo Hills on Monday night.
A Maruti car with four occupants was intercepted by Police at around 9 PM on Monday. When police conducted a search of the vehicle they recovered two 7.65 pistols with two magazines and ten live rounds.
During interrogation the four, three Garos and a Nepali, revealed that they had kidnapped one trader identified as Mohibur Ali (40) from Paikan and demanded Rs 1.5 lakh from the family.
West Garo Hills SP Mukesh Kr Singh informed that during interrogation, the four confessed that after the family failed to pay the money, they murdered the trader and dumped his body at Raja Rongat village in Chokpot and were returning back after committing the crime when they were apprehended.
Police on Tuesday afternoon recovered the slain body of the trader from a gorge along the Chokpot-Tura road.
The four were identified as Amar Thapa (21) from Dudhnoi in Goalpara district of Assam, Sengseng N Sangma (20) from Rari village in North Garo Hills, Setu Sangma (23) from Purakhasia in West Garo Hills and But Marak (25) from Jadi region in South Garo Hills.
Meanwhile, in another incident, criminals abducted an Assam-based trader from Gokol village under Bajengdoba PS in North Garo Hills, when he was preparing to board a vehicle heading to Guwahati.
The trader, M Ali (50) was preparing to board a passenger cab after shutting shop for the day on Tuesday at around 4:30 PM when the kidnapping took place.
Finding the vehicle full, the trader decided to hitch a ride by holding on to a steel ladder at the rear of the vehicle when suddenly three local boys came up and pulled him down.
Two of the kidnappers brandished pistols and even opened one round of fire in the air to scare away the onlookers before dragging the trader towards a jungle across the nearby Didram river.
Whereabouts of the trader, who hails from Krishnai town near Dudhnoi in Goalpara district of Assam, remain unknown.