Conflicting reports, theories surround kidnap, rescue saga of banker
TURA: Conflicting reports and theories continue to surround the kidnapping and subsequent rescue of the SBI branch manager of Ampati, Arvind Kumar, with police initially blaming militant groups for the abduction but later retracting and pointing a finger at a criminal gang comprising of both locals and non-locals with its roots in neighbouring Assam.
The militants, on the other hand, have accused the Tura police of orchestrating the entire kidnap saga to earn brownie points and deflect criticism from the recent custodial death issue that has turned out to be a major case for Garo Hills based social and student groups.
While Tura police claim that the gang comprised of mixed communities with its kingpin hailing from the minority dominated town of Mankachar in neighbouring Assam, the GNLA has gone on record to state that the motorcycle used by the gang was allegedly confiscated by Tura police sometime ago.
In the ongoing saga of accusations and counter-accusations, The Shillong Times caught up with the banker victim, Arvind Kumar, at Guwahati while he was on transit to his home town in Patna, Bihar.
Speaking to this scribe Kumar disagrees with the statements given by both sides- police and militant group GNLA.
“When the three local boys halted my car a little ahead of the Garobadha bridge there was ) no motorcycle. They came on foot and brandished one sophisticated pistol and two country-made guns,” recalled the branch manager.
He also added that at first sight he knew the kidnappers were petty criminals with no connection to militant groups.
“They did not even have proper footwear and were wearing worn out slippers. I had two brand new pair of shoes in the car which the kidnappers took out and started to wear after discarding their sandals. They even took my ATM and credit cards and asked for the pin code,” said Kumar.
On the reports that the kidnappers were a mixed group with the kingpin based in Mankachar town of Dhubri district in Assam as claimed by police, Kumar revealed that all throughout his three days in captivity he never came across any person of the group from another community other than the three kidnappers.
“There were only three kidnappers who were all along with me and the leader of the group was constantly on the cell phone taking directions from someone in the local language,” he recalled.
He also added that he constantly taunted the kidnappers questioning their authenticity as far as militant groups were concerned which infuriated one of them to the extent that he assaulted him with a bamboo stick and also fired a blank shot near his head.
“Seeing their apparels I knew they could not be militants because they did not even have any wireless handset or sophisticated weapons. They asked me to speak to my father to get the money which I refused. So one of them tried to frighten me but I started laughing and he got very angry and picked up a wooden plank and began to beat me,” mentioned the bank official.
One instance of the kidnap saga that stands out is the hours running up to the rescue operation. The banker recalls that despite having walked several hours for two consecutive days criss-crossing hills and sleeping in abandoned huts near paddy fields the abductors brought him back to the same area which they had passed through the previous night.
“Probably they lost direction due to the long walks but I noticed that we had come across the same hill we passed through on Tuesday. In fact we slept on the other side of the hill for the night and early morning we left walking quite a distance only to return to the previous place,” recalled Kumar.
Just before the rescue the kidnappers had spotted a police vehicle lying stationary below the hill at quite a distance and he was made to lie on the ground and wait while the abductors kept watch only to flee once the firing began leaving him behind.
“I did not see the police personnel from the stationary vehicle come up the hill but another group of personnel arrived at my spot from another direction. I was quite surprised at the speed the police teams came up to rescue me and very relieved that my ordeal was over,” said Arvind Kumar.