SHILLONG: An impersonation victim from South Garo Hills has gone missing and police are clueless about his whereabouts.
The case is that of Rusith Sangma from South Garo Hills, who, for several years, was made to impersonate Deepcharan Kaipeng, a man from Tripura, when the former was lodged in Shillong jail.
The matter had come up in the form of a PIL moved by senior lawyer S P Mahanta in the High Court of Meghalaya but it was disposed of after the court gave direction to the police that whenever the victim is traced, it will be again taken up.
The police had treated the case registered under Rongara police station, South Garo Hills as closed after investigating the matter under Section 365 IPC (Kidnapping for wrongful confinement of a person).
The report was submitted to the magistrate and it was accepted.
In the order on May 8, the division bench comprising Chief Justice Mohammad Yaqoob Mir and Justice H.S. Thangkhiew observed that though the proceedings of the PIL are closed, “as and when the whereabouts of the missing person are traced, it shall be open for the police to take necessary action”.
The counsel for the petitioner submitted that the government has filed the statement of the witness (close relatives) and in view of the position, the public interest proceedings need to be closed.
However, the court said it will remain open to the police to proceed if and when the missing person is traced.
According to the court, after going through the records, it appears that the police had made frantic efforts for tracing out the missing person but the same could not fructify.
“There is no input which would persuade so as to continue with the proceeding as on date nothing is forthcoming regarding the whereabouts of the missing person”, the court said.
It was in 2001 that the impersonation victim was entrusted to the custody of his brother, Thomas Sangma and sister, Chomoni Sangma in South Garo Hills after he was released from jail following wrongful detention.
However, the relatives filed the missing FIR only in November 2016 following the visit of a few reporters to Baghmara.
The sensational case of Rusith had many twists and turns over the years.
It was in 1992 that a student from Tripura, indentified as Deepcharan Kaipeng, stabbed to death his friend Doyalian Kaipeng, a student of St. Anthony’s College here. They were residing at Malki.
Deepcharan was arrested and lodged in Shillong jail.
Probably in 1994 either when Deepcharan died in custody or escaped, he was replaced by the jail staff with the non-criminal lunatic Rusith who was already in jail. In fact, Rusith was picked up in the middle of 1980s from South Garo Hills border and was first lodged in Tura jail and subsequently shifted to Shillong jail.
The mix-up case involving Deepcharan and Rusith was detected in 2001when Rusith was produced before the lower court. The judge, S.R Sen, who was dealing with the case at the lower court, then entrusted the matter to senior lawyer Mahanta to pursue the case on behalf of Rusith.
Subsequently in the same year, when the matter came up before the then Shillong Bench of the Gauhati High Court, it ordered a CBI inquiry and adequate compensation to Rusith, while asking the Meghalaya police to find out Deepcharan, who, however, is yet to be traced.
The then Shillong Bench of the High Court in June 2001 had also asked the state government to pay Rs 2,500 by the seventh of every month as compensation to Thomas, Rusith’s brother, through the deputy commissioner of Baghmara.
The court wanted Thomas to look after Rusith since the latter, who was already married and had a daughter, was abandoned by them.
After a year-long tireless inquiry, the CBI submitted its report in 2002 related to the mix-up case, and 10 jail officials were found guilty.
Later, the Gauhati High Court during the hearing in 2005 had asked the state government to pay Rs 2 lakh to Thomas as compensation for the mix-up case.
The money was to be spent for the welfare of Rusith.
After the lower court handed over Rusith to his brother Thomas in 2001, he was taken to his village Gulpani, South Garo Hills.
However, in November, 2018, it was revealed that Rusith was nowhere to be found.
Thomas and his sister Chomoni claimed that in 2006, Rusith went missing from their house and since then he was not traceable. However, they did not file any FIR regarding the missing case.
Police clueless on missing…
(Contd from P-1) After the lower court handed over Rusith to his brother Thomas in 2001, he was taken to his village Gulpani, South Garo Hills.
However, in November, 2018, it was revealed that Rusith was nowhere to be found.
Thomas and his sister Chomoni claimed that in 2006, Rusith went missing from their house and since then he was not traceable. However, they did not file any FIR regarding the missing case.