TURA: A three-member gang of dacoits who tried to waylay travelers on the Songsak-Rongjeng road in East Garo Hills were at the receiving end when they mistakenly shot at an approaching police vehicle resulting in a brief gun fight in which one of them was hit and later caught with gunshot wounds.
The incident unfolded on Friday night, around 11:30 pm, after the gang had tried to stop an approaching vehicle by blocking the road with felled trees at Naringgre, 8 kms from Rongjeng.
A vehicle coming from Songsak spotted the road block ahead and managed to reverse and flee before the gang could hold them up.
Information was quickly passed on to Rongjeng police and a team of armed personnel quickly swung into action. As the police vehicle approached the spot the unsuspecting dacoits fired a shot from their single barrel shot gun (SBBL) forcing the security personnel to return fire.
The criminals abandoned their gun and a torch light before fleeing into the forests.
When reinforcements arrived the police found blood spots at the site and by daybreak began a search operation. The search led them to a remote village inside the forests where they found one of the gang members at his home nursing a bullet wound to his face.
He revealed the names of two other companions from the locality who had by then fled their homes to avoid arrest.
The injured highway man, identified as Tensing G Momin and hailing from Snal Bolonggre Dana Gitchak village, was taken to Williamnagar civil hospital for medical treatment.
His two accomplices, Ringrang Sangma and Dilash G Momin are currently on the run with a police lookout issued against them.
