SHILLONG: The body that was abandoned by the occupants of a tourist vehicle on the bypass at Diengpasoh in East Khasi Hills on Tuesday was that of a coal miner’s.
Sources said the coal miner, identified as Naresh Rajbongshi (31), died in a quarry at Myndihati, Khliehriat in East Jaintia Hills, and the occupants of the Tata Sumo (ML-04 A 8561) attempted to hush up the matter and bury the body in his hometown in Assam.
However, the Meghalaya police website only mentioned that he was working in a quarry and did not make it clear whether it was a coal or a stone quarry.
The police checking on Shillong bypass was following the recent arrest of NSCN-K leaders in West Jaintia Hills.
Police said around 9.15 pm on Tuesday, during checking at Diengpasoh, police signalled the vehicle to stop but the driver sped away.
Police chased the vehicle and intercepted the same at Mawkhanu but the occupants fled into the nearby jungle.
On checking the vehicle, the police recovered Rajbongshi’s body with head injuries.
Later, police detained one of the occupants from the area while three others gave themselves up. They were identified as Hari Rajbongshi (25), Vicky Baglary (21), Gulzar Hussain (18) and Joydeep Rajbongshi (26). However, the driver of the Tata Sumo and another occupant are still at large.
The arrested men told police during interrogation that Rajbongshi died due to injuries sustained when a boulder fell on his head while he was working in a quarry in Khliehriat. They were taking the body to his village at Silbari in Assam’s Nalbari.
Sources pointed out that the occupants of the vehicle did not inform the police in Khliehriat about the death and the body was taken without fulfilling the formalities with the police.
It may be that the quarry was illegal and so the workers tried to hush it up. If it was a normal stone quarry, the workers should not have hidden the incident from police, sources added.
