JOWAI: Kidnapping cases in East Jaintia Hills – the mineral- rich district of Meghalaya – has been on the rise with reports of kidnappings of several coal labourers and coal mine supervisors and their relatives.
In March alone, Khliehriat Police registered four cases. Police, incidentally, were able to rescue all the victims and in some cases even managed to arrest some of the abductors.
The first report of kidnapping in March was on March 9 at around 9 pm when unidentified persons, numbering about six and brandishing pistols, entered a labour camp located at Panch Phut under the jurisdiction of Byndihati village and abducted the mine supervisor Kumar Bhujan.
His wife screamed for help and when other labourer tried to rescue him, the kidnappers fired three rounds in the air. Police later recovered one 9mm empty case and live ammunition from the labour camp.
The next day, the kidnappers called up the victim’s wife and demanded Rs.10 lakh for his safe release. The mine owner, Ms Dapmon Rymbai of Rymbai village, lodged a complaint and three days later police were able to rescue the victim and arrested two people identified as Khmihbha Dkhar (35) of Moolang village and Abdul Basit of Karimganj. The duo was arrested from Umpleng- near Jaintia Cement plant while six other prime accused are still at large.
On March 24, five unidentified persons came in a Bolero pick-up and abducted one Hari Shrestha, the brother of a coal mine supervisor, Sumon Shrestha. The kidnappers later demanded 10 tolas of gold and Rs.60000 in cash as ransom.
Khliehriat Police rescued the victim from a jungle at Sakhain and arrested four accused including a woman. The arrested persons were identified as Ms. Maya Choudhary, August Bareh of Jalaphet, Laxman Tamang and Ramesh Raj Bongshi. Another accused is absconding.
Earlier, on March 22, Sharif Uddin Choudhury lodged a complaint with Khliehriat Police that his brother, Altab Bachan Choudhury was kidnapped from a coal camp at Takhlong under Nongkhlieh Elaka. The kidnappers had demanded Rs 1.50 lakh as ransom. Police were able to rescue the victim and arrested one Abdul Khalik from Khliehriat.
Again, on March 29, a coal mine owner H. Deyo Dkhar of Wapungskur lodged a complaint that his labourer Muktal Hussein had been kidnapped from Wahbon, Jalaphet and the kidnappers had demanded Rs.3 lakh.
According to the complaint, the victim was abducted while he was on his way from Jalaphet village to his camp. The next day police rescued the victim and arrested Sahid Ali of Rajabala and Ibrahim Mandal of Dhubri (both in Assam) besides a local resident identified as Santish Pakem of Mookhain.