Wanted criminal William manages to escape
TURA: Attempt by a criminal gang to collect extortion money to purchase more arms and expand their base in the guise of a militant outfit was cut short by Tura police who intercepted them at Selbalgre village of Rongram leading to a gun battle in which one of the gang members was shot dead and another arrested late Friday afternoon.
The gang was led by wanted criminal William A Sangma who had previously escaped from police lock up and was later arrested in Tamil Nadu.
To spread fear on their victims the gang had called themselves as the A’chik Revolutionary Army (ARA) and had been behind the recent serving of extortion demands in Tura and other towns of Garo Hills.
On Friday they had planned to get delivery of extortion money from one of their victims and the drop zone was to be Selbalgre, 21 kms from Tura, on the road to Williamnagar.
Instead of their potential victim turning up with the money it was a posse of police commandos who arrived on the scene leading to the gun battle.
During the fire fight one of the gang members was shot dead while another gave himself up to the police.
The leader of the group, William A Sangma, managed to flee into the forests leading up toward the Nokrek biosphere region.
From the possession of the deceased criminal police recovered a 9 mm pistol with a magazine and a single live round. His identity is yet to be established.
The other gang member who was arrested has been identified as Bachan M Marak (30), a resident of Rensingpara village of Rongram.
Police commandos are continuing their search of the area to try and nab William and the other cadres who managed to escape.
Of late there has been a spurt of extortion cases and abductions in Garo Hills with several petty gangs operating by using militant names.
One such gang was busted on Thursday by West Garo Hills Police and four of the main members arrested after the group murdered their three victims even after receiving the ransom money of three lakh rupees.
In the case of the Selbalgre encounter, the gang headed by William Sangma had earlier called themselves as the A’chik National Cooperative Army (ANCA) until their leader was caught by North Garo Hills Police in August 2014.
However, William and his accomplice escaped from the police lock up they had been kept for the night after overpowering the guard the next morning.
He had been arrested for the abduction of a college student and the attempt to murder an off duty and unarmed police constable at Kherapara area when the policeman and his college friend were heading from Tura to their home town in Dalu.
The unarmed policeman managed to escape after fighting off the gang and despite sustaining a gun shot.
After their dramatic escape from Mendipathar police station William fled to South India and taking up a fake identity entrenched himself in the garment manufacturing town of Chinnakkarai in Tirupar district in Tamil Nadu from where he was arrested on November 25th 2014 by a special police team from that state after a tip off by Garo Hills police.
Police were able to find out his location after arresting one of his accomplices from Tura bazaar who spilled the beans on the whereabouts of the criminal.