RESUBELPARA, July 2: North Garo Hills (NGH) police on Monday arrested the third member of a dacoity gang that had been active in the border areas between Assam and Meghalaya.
The arrest, which was the third in the case, came after a formal police complaint had been filed by victims of dacoity on June 19 at the Mendipathar PS after they were looted of money and valuables at gunpoint on June 18 by the gang of dacoits.
As per information received, on the evening of June 18, four miscreants, who were on two two-wheelers — Aprilia Scooty (AS18J-0181) and Bajaj Pulsar 220 (AS18 E-7925) — stopped the victims and at gunpoint, demanded money. They took away an amount of Rs 80,000, personal documents along with two mobile phones with SIM cards. On the same evening, however, the same dacoity gang was intercepted by villagers of Beldongpara under Krishnai, Goalpara, Assam, that had fled away from the scene of the incident, near Manikganj in NGH.
The four miscreants somehow managed to escape, leaving their Pulsar bike behind. It was later handed over to the Mendipathar PS, which was duly seized.
On June 19, 2024, an FIR was received from the victims and the case has been registered vide Mendipathar Police Station Case No. 09(06)2024 under Section 392 IPC, read with Section 25(IA)(IB) Arms Act.
In this connection, a search operation was launched and led by Deputy SP, Special Ops, and his team in the suspected hideout in the neighboring areas of Assam.
One of the dacoits, Sunil Boro (33), a resident of Upper Borgum, Dudhnoi PO/PS, was arrested from Dhupdhara PS jurisdiction along with a scooty bearing registration number AS18J-0181 which was used during the commission of the crime. The others, who were identified by then, included Kaltu Rabha, Turti Basumatary, and Sahadev Basumatary, all from the Dudhnoi area of Assam, but they managed to escape.
“Due to the intense search operation conducted by the team, on July 1, one of the co-accused, namely Turti Basumatary, a resident of Buglamari, PO Lela, PS Dudhnoi, Goalpara, Assam, surrendered before the NGH police along with a semi-automatic pistol with two live rounds. On his lead, co-accused Sahadev Basumatary was arrested from the Assam-Meghalaya border near Tikrikilla, West Garo Hills,” informed SP of NGH, Swapnil Vasantrao Pawar.
The SP said that the search operation to arrest the other accused persons is ongoing. He also mentioned that the suspects were habitual offenders and were involved in many dacoity cases in Assam and Meghalaya.
