SHILLONG: The State police on Friday arrested three of its personnel including a police officer and two constables for their involvement in a robbery case at Shillong Bypass near Mawryngkneng village earlier this month.
Informing this on Saturday during a press conference, East Khasi Hills SP M Kharkrang said that Shillong Special Police cell arrested the trio for their direct involvement in looting a truck (AS-01-EC-0515) loaded with non ferrous scrap including copper, brass and aluminuium worth Rs 20.10 lakh on November 7.
The accused cops have been identified as Sub-Inspector Sudarshan Sangma, UB Constable Claipson M Marak and MPRO Operator Constable Basant Lama, all of whom were attached to the newly set up police station at Mawryngkneng village.
According to Kharkrang, the truck loaded with 150 bags of non ferrous scrap including 51 bags of copper scraps weighing 2480 kgs, 34 bags of brass scrap weighing 2273 kg and 60 bags of aluminium scrap weighing 2625 kg were dispatched on November 6 from Silchar to the godown of Harsh Metal in Guwahati, Assam.
However, on reaching Mawrynkneng village on November 7, a group of people hijacked the truck and took it towards the Shillong Bypass, while the driver and a staff of the company were taken in another vehicle towards Diengpasoh and kept there till 7:30 pm after which they were released, the SP said.
“It was found that 127 bags worth Rs 20 lakh were stolen from the truck,” he said.
The police filed an FIR and detained the truck driver, Saidullah Alam Laskar, and the company’s staff Deep Kumar Nath for interrogation.
They were later released after police confirmed that both of them were innocent.
Following further interrogation, police recovered the cell phones of the truck driver and the staff from the house of Constable Claipson M Marak and also seized the vehicle (Swift, ML 05 K 8473) which was used by the police personnel for committing the robbery. The vehicle belonged to SI Sudarshan Sangma.
The three accused have been remanded to five day’s police custody by the Court,” the Kharkrang said, adding, investigation is on to nab other persons involved in the crime as well as to find out where the stolen goods have been kept by the accused.
“Meghalaya police is a force having more than 12, 000 personnel who are working hard day and night but some black sheep are trying to tarnish the image of the entire department,” Kharkrang said.