TURA: West Garo Hills police have on Thursday recovered the body of a driver who along with his vehicle went missing at the beginning of this month after being hired from Tura to the border town of Dalu. The vehicle remains untraced.
The victim, Nagrash R Sangma who drove the Mahindra Pik Up (ML08-E-1099) was hired by an unidentified person in Tura to accompany him to Dalu to pick up household items. The victim reportedly told some of his driver colleagues that he had been hired to bring back the household commodities to a locality in Dakopgre area of the town.
On the day of his disappearance, he was spotted at 12th mile road by some of the commercial vehicle drivers heading towards the Kherapara-Dalu route. Since that day he was not able to be reached and worried relatives gave a missing person report to the police.
A few days after his disappearance, travelers came across a strong decomposing stench while passing through the Rongdapara reserve forest, on the Kherapara-Dalu road.
On Thursday, police recovered his decomposed body dumped in the forest area not far from the road.
Police suspect that he was murdered for the vehicle and the prime suspicion is on the man who hired the vehicle from Tura. An investigation has been launched to nab the culprits.
Over the past few years, Garo Hills has been witnessing a series of vehicle thefts and murder of drivers by criminal gangs who sell the vehicles in neighbouring states. It began with the theft of motorcycles which soon expanded to four wheel vehicles, particularly Mahindra Boleros and commercial vehicle Pik-Ups.
In almost all identified cases, local gangs have been found to be working in tandem with those criminal gangs from other states. While the local groups identify the vehicles, the gangs from outside come in with their ‘expertise’ and drive away with the vehicle.