SHILLONG, Aug 13: The family members of Cheristerfield Thangkhiew have termed his death in “encounter” as “cold-blooded murder” by the police and demanded penal action against the cop who pulled the trigger.
The younger brother of Thangkhiew, Granary Starfield Thangkhiew on Friday alleged that the police had come with the “intention to kill” his brother by forcibly entering the house in the wee hours.
According to him, the claim by the police that his brother attacked them with a knife is a “lie” since he cannot even walk properly on account of chronic kidney disease.
Claiming that his brother had lost the use of his left arm, Starfield described the police version as “shocking” questioning the rationale of arresting the two sons of late Thangkhiew who were sleeping on the second floor of the residence.
Slamming the police for terming the two sons as ‘accomplices’, the brother questioned how the police could falsely accuse his two innocent nephews of being accomplices in crime. Police however said the duo was not arrested but taken for interrogation.
He observed that if the police wanted to interrogate Thangkhiew they should have come in the daytime and not past midnight.
Meanwhile, Cheristerfield’s wife, M. Diengdoh said that when she first heard the noise she thought it was a case of burglary. She told media persons that she along with her four children who were sleeping with her on the ground floor came out after hearing the noise of gunshots.
Diengdoh said that she wanted to rush to the second floor to see whether everything was fine but police prevented her from going there.
“Police did not allow me to go to the second floor even till late in the afternoon of Friday,” she said claiming further that one of her sons who waspicked up by the police is a security guard in NEIGRIHMS while her other son is working in the Animal Husbandry and Veterinary department in Riangdo, West Khasi Hills.
According to eyewitnesses, there were more than 20 vehicles that had come to Thangkhiew’s residence and they questioned why the police had also brought a stretcher along with them.
Meanwhile, Grainey Diengdoh and Olifin Diengdoh — the two sons of Cheristerfield who were picked up by police — have accused the cops of assaulting them thinking they were his personal security guard.
Speaking to reporters after their release on Friday evening, Grainey said police barged into their house and they were forcefully pulled out of their beds.
He said that he saw his father had been injured from the bullet wound.
He claimed that police covered their faces with clothes and assaulted them after forcing them to lie flat on the floor.
He asserted that his father would not have been able to fight against the police since he was suffering from chronic kidney problems and his hand was incapacitated.
Grainey also claimed that police initially took them to Sadar police station from where they were to be taken to Khliehriat in East Jaintia Hills but changed their plans midway.
“We were on the way to Khliehriat when police decided to turn back to Shillong after learning that we are his sons,” Grainey stated.
The son also claimed that police waited till sunrise before shifting Thangkhiew to Shillong Civil Hospital.
Another family member said that he would have been alive if police had shifted him to the hospital immediately. “We want to question why police waited two hours before shifting him to the hospital,” he said.
The family member also claimed that the police made an entry at the police booth mentioning Thangkhiew’s name as unknown.
