Victim rescued, brother killed in botched operation

NONGSTOIN: In a botched operation to rescue an abducted person in West Khasi Hills, the victim’s brother was killed along with an abductor, though police secured the release of the victim on Friday.
The modus operandi of the police to send the victim’s brother to give ransom to the adductors to neutralize them has gone terribly wrong leading to his death during the encounter between police and the abductors.
According to police, it was on January 13 at around 6:30 pm, that a group of unidentified miscreants forcibly entered the residence of one Dringshon Marwein of Nongthymmai,  near Tynghor village under Aradonga police outpost and kidnapped his son  Darius Marngar(19) at gun point.
They also took away Marwein’s licensed SBBL gun and demanded a ransom of Rs 50 lakh  for the safe release of  his son. One of the miscreants was speaking in Khasi.
The family members informed the matter to police and during a search and rescue operation conducted on January 15, after fixing a time for the payment of ransom to the abductors, there was an encounter between the miscreants and the police team at around 8:30pm at Mawram (Nunmati).
During the encounter, the kidnapped victim Marngar was rescued by the police team and the leader of the gang identified as Phidorit Nianglang of Nongrathaw village was shot dead.  However, the elder brother of the rescued victim, Wilstar Marngar, who had gone to deliver the ransom to the abductors along with one Hillard Sangma, was killed in the crossfire.
Later, police recovered the SBML gun from the encounter site and 13 empty cases of AK series assault rifle.
A criminal case was registered in Nongstoin police station. Police said that the slain abductor was also involved in the kidnapping of one Bodywell Puwein on December 4 last year from Riangsih village under Riangdo outpost.