SHILLONG: Negating police claims that Salgro Arengh, who was responsible for posting threat messages against senior police and judicial officials has been picked up from the Tura District Jail, the Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA) has downplayed it saying it had by no means convinced the general public that the mystery behind the identity of the faceless Facebook character has been solved.
“In the midst of suspicion police have accused various persons and have arrested many. However, they have by no means convinced the public saying Salgro Arengh is by now apprehended,” joint publicity secretary of GNLA, Garo Mandei Ch Marak said in a statement.
He questioned what evidence police had to point an accusing finger at the outfit when it did not even know precisely who Salgro Arengh really was.
“Over and again we have clarified that he is not our member. We do not know who this Salgro Arengh is. Interestingly, police have misguided the general public by saying that he has been found and arrested and the mystery is thus solved,” he said.
In support of his claim he pointed out that Salgro Arengh has been online 24X7 on Facebook even now for all to see and questioned how the police could claim to have cracked the mystery with that being the case.
“Police ought to be cautious and must not annoy guiltless individuals by implicating them to be aggressors. There are thousands of Facebook users who post comments in names and titles nobody knows. They are ghosts. So why chase after them?” Marak said.
Marak also claimed that Solly Ch Sangma and Johny Marak who was charged by the police to belong to the GNLA and arrested were neither members of the outfit nor had any links to it.
He said that if mobiles were really found inside the Tura District Jail premises why the Jailor and the Superintendent of the jail were not booked and their names mentioned in the case.
“Suddenly why are they spared? The Facebook account of Salgro Arengh itself is created by the police and it is a conspiracy with a plan to make many arrests. The mobile phone from which Salgro Arengh posted threat messages was taken from the custody of the Jailor and the Superintendent of Tura Jail not from Johny Marak and Solly Sangma. Is this not a mystery instead? It was merely a pre meditated drama staged by police to show they did something positive,” the militant leader claimed while adding, “No one is buying the police version of the story. According to me Salgro Arengh is none other than an educated smart police officer of high rank in Shillong as the IP address and the Tower location pings from Shillong in the jammer locator it shows.”