TURA: West Garo Hills police have on Thursday recovered the body of a driver who, along with his vehicle, went missing earlier 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 pick-up with Meghalaya registration was hired by an unidentified person in Tura to accompany him to Dalu to pick up household items. The victim reportedly told other drivers that he had been hired to bring back the household commodities to a locality in Dakopgre area in 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. His relatives had lodged a missing person report.
A few days after his disappearance, travellers 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 suspect is the man who hired the vehicle from Tura.
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-wheelers, particularly Mahindra Boleros and commercial vehicles.
In almost all identified cases, local gangs have been found to be working in tandem with 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.
