Cop murder case: Plot thickens
SHILLONG: What was the emergency call and who was the caller whom the late police officer P.J. Marbaniang was referring to when his wife spoke to him for the last time at 8:42 pm on January 24 this year?
Marbaniang died under mysterious circumstances on the night of January 24 and the incident happened soon after the police officer detained 32 trucks carrying coal illegally to Assam.
Widow of the late officer, Chaleth Pyngrope, told The Shillong Times that it was at 8:42 pm that she had spoken to him for the last time.
“When I called up he told me that there was pressure from the ‘office’ and coal truckers, and while we were talking he told me that there was an emergency call and he disconnected the phone,” she said.
Mysteriously, the timing of his death was reported at 8:50 pm just eight minutes after the emergency call.
According to Chaleth, when she met SP (City) Vivek Syiem who was leading the Special Investigation Team (SIT), he had told her that there was no emergency call.
The emergency caller could have been a police officer or any other influential person, according to the relatives.
Prior to her last call, Chaleth had also spoken to him at around 7:45 pm while Dorothy Marbaniang, the mother of the police officer, had called her son at 7 pm.
“After 8:42 pm, I called up my husband many times. Though his phone was ringing, there was no response till 11 pm,” Chaleth said.
Both the wife and the mother wanted the police to provide them with call records to ascertain the nature of calls and the persons involved.
Moreover, Chaleth said that the doors of the residential quarter where late Marbaniang was staying, particularly the door of his bed room, were wide open when his body was found.
“I talked to the police constable Tirot Singh who first saw the body and he told me that all the doors were open. How can a person commit suicide after opening all the doors of his house?” she asked.