Rape/murder case in Upper Shillong : Police lapses in probe comes to light
SHILLONG: In a rare case, the mother of an accused in a brutal rape and murder of 19-year-old girl has handed her son over to police.
The incident took place at 4½ Mile, Upper Shillong on Thursday night and the lady handed over her son to police the next day.
The girl went missing at around 7. 30 pm on Thursday after she finished cutting vegetables at her house which prompted the family to launch a manhunt and the girl was found at around midnight at the jungle close to her residence, following which she was shifted to the Civil Hospital where she was declared brought dead.
The mother of the accused is annoyed over police taking credit for arresting her son as the fact was that it was she who approached police to hand over her son, after he confessed his involvement in the crime to the mother.
The 22-year-old accused also hinted involvement of a few others to the mother in his confession.
However, after his arrest on Friday, the police circulated SMS to the media on Saturday stating that “within 24 hours police arrested Vicky Syiemlieh, for his involvement in rape and murder. He is a neighbour of the victim”. The accused was remanded to five days police custody.
The Shillong Times on Saturday visited families of both the victim and the accused at their residences at Upper Shillong.
The mother of the victim, Dlet Syiemlieh said that he found her son restless on Thursday night and he went out around 8 pm.
The mother quoting her son claimed that there were three others wearing masks at the jungle close to the house of the victim and they had asked the accused to strangulate the victim.
According to some neighbours, the accused was seen the whole day with two youths.
The mother of the victim said that on Thursday night they heard people searching for the girl who was their neighbor and at around midnight, there was a scream after the girl’s body was found.
“The next day, my son confessed to me about his involvement in the crime and I immediately rushed to Lumdiengjri police station and later met the SP. I asked the police to take my son from our house”, the mother said.
According to the mother, she informed police so that the village will not blame her. “If he is involved in the crime, we want due punishment to be given to him. Moreover, we are poor and hence cannot afford to bail him out”, she said.
A narrow road divides the residences of both the accused and the victim at Upper Shillong.
The relatives of the victim said that police first detained her uncle the whole night at Jhalupara outpost on Thursday with no fault of his. “We divided the groups to search for the girl and I was the one who first spotted the body which I covered with my jacket, but police finding blood marks in my jacket picked me up and forced me to confess the crime”, Pyrshan Kharrymba, the uncle of the girl said. He was released only on Friday evening.
The relatives pointed out lapses on the part of police in their process of investigation as the police personnel had not brought sniffer dog to find out evidences related to the crime.
The body had injury marks and this may be the result of the use of blunt objects, but police are yet to recover the objects used’, said the relatives who believe that more than one person were involved in the crime.
The parents of both the victim and the accused said that the girl, who has just finished her matriculation, was exceptional in her behaviour.
The family revealed the name of the victim as Shailina Kharrymba.
While the relatives of the victim pointed out that the accused committed the crime after she rejected his proposal many times, the family of the accused, however, denied this.