SHILLONG: The body of a 57-year-old employee of Meghalaya Tourism Development Corporation was found in a forest at Umbir in Ri Bhoi on Thursday.
The deceased, identified as Iohbianghun Sahkhar, was a resident of Umpling and worked as assistant manager at Orchid Lake Resort in Umiam. Her body was found in a private forest, Nongpoh police said.
The police said a nylon rope was found tied around her neck and “some bluish marks were found on her left hand”.
“No other major injury was found in the body except for a bluish colour on the jaw line on the right side,” they added.
The investigating team found her shoes near the body and her hand bag that had a knife, a nail cutter, homeopathic pills, water bottle, mobile phone and ID card, among other things.
R Sahkhar, her elder sister, said she left for office in the morning like every day.
“When I told her that I would drop her to office, she refused and told me that she would be back early as she was not feeling well. I called her up around 1.20pm and she said she had reached office. She was the youngest of us all,” the sister, who was the last person to speak to Iohbianghun, said as she tried to hold back her tears.
Around 6.30 pm, the elder sister again called up Iohbianghun but the mobile phone was switched off. So she called up her friend at office to enquire about her sister. “It was then that I came to know that she did not go to office today (Thursday). I usually call up her friend to find out whether she had reached safely. But today I did not,” she added.
After speaking to the friend, the elder sister called up Iohbianghun’s son and asked him to find out what was the matter. Later in the evening, the family got a call from Umiam police and was asked to come to the police station.
When asked whether the family had any relative in Ri Bhoi whom Iohbianghun could visit, her elder brother KB Sahkhar answered in negative.
B Sahkhar said Iohbianghun did not have enmity with anyone and she always obeyed her elder siblings and took their advice for everything.
“However, she would look worried and when I would ask her, she would say she was not keeping well and she was really concerned about her health. But I would assure her that ailments come with age and we could take her to a specialist for proper check-up. In fact, we were planning to go,” said the elder sister.
Her body has been sent to Nongpoh Civil Hospital for postmortem. “We have to wait for the report and cannot ascertain anything before that,” said the brother.