TURA: Chargesheets have been filed against the accused in the murder of five members of a family at Mrigre village in 2015 over alleged witchcraft.
As many as 57 villagers have been named in the chargesheet for their involvement in the cold-blooded murder and a supplementary charge-sheet is also being submitted soon, Tura police said during an interactive session on human rights programme at the DC office on Thursday.
Two other cases in connection with the murders are currently with the women police in Tura and their chargesheet is also expected within the next few days.
Presenting a case study, magistrate in charge of judiciary AVD Shira gave a vivid account of the sequence of events that led to the crime because of superstitious beliefs of villagers.
The chargesheets come after a previous botched investigation by Rongram police that compelled the daughter of one of the victims to seek a fresh investigation into the murders.
Deputy Commissioner Pravin Bakshi, while speaking about the case during the interactive session on human rights, said it was “extremely challenging” for the authorities to bring the matter to its logical conclusion.
“There was a lot of interference on behalf of the villagers but it was due to the courage of one person — the wife of the murdered teacher David Maxeneir T Sangma, which helped us to crack the case,” said DC Bakshi.
The plan to murder the family of five was set in motion in December 2014 when the Mrigre village headman (Nokma), Lind B Marak, gave a verbal complaint to Rongram police accusing the family of Hallan and Bala T Sangma of practising witchcraft and the need to evict them.
This was further backed up with another police complaint by the nokma on January 5, 2015. But when the villagers were later called to the police outpost to record their statements, no one turned up raising doubts about the authenticity of the allegations.
On January 19, the wife of school teacher David Maxeneir T Sangma came down from Oragitok village to register a missing report of her husband who had not returned since a visit to his village at Mrigre over 10 days ago. Her attempts to contact her husband on his cellphone failed as the call initially went unanswered and later the device was switched off.
As news began to filter in about the possible murders, police started an investigation into the five missing persons.
The victims were Hallen T Sangma and his wife Bala T Sangma (both in their 50s) along with their son Washing T Sangma (30), Hedison B Marak and his son David (45).
Fear of arrest compelled a group of villagers from Mrigre, led by one Jackson T Sangma, to pay a visit to the home of David’s wife at Oragitok.
There, Jackson revealed the murders accusing the family of practising witchcraft. He went a step further asking the widow of David to remarry another villager to allow her to claim her late husband’s property.
The only survivor and witness to the murders was Ringgat T Sangma, the daughter of Hallen and Bala T Sangma.
Later when Ringgat demanded fresh prove, Jackson and his accomplice Ronjon T Sangma tried to abduct her in April 2017.
