TURA: A highway robber was arrested on Friday night after he and his two accomplices mistakenly shot at a police vehicle.
The three dacoits waylay travellers on the Songsak-Rongjeng Road in East Garo Hills. Around 11.30pm on Friday, the gang tried to stop a vehicle by blocking the road with trees at Naringgre, 8 km 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 from their single barrel shot gun forcing the security personnel to return fire.
The criminals abandoned their arms 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 forest where they found one of the gang members nursing a bullet wound on 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.
