By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, Dec 13: The magisterial probe into the death of two Meghalaya youths at a rehabilitation centre in Assam revealed no foul play.
“Based upon the statements given by the family members of both Rickelson Jyrwa and Mebansanbha Syndor, no foul play was suspected and no visible injury marks or scars were noticed on the dead bodies. Hence, they did not file any FIR with the police,” the probe report said.
Although no post-mortem was conducted in the two cases, the report stated: “Rickelson Jyrwa – The cause of death is uncertain and the patient was received in an unconscious state at the hospital (Annexure 4). The doctor had prescribed for post mortem examination but the family members had declined.”
“They simply gave a declaration to the hospital that they do not want post-mortem examination and the body was then handed over to them,” it added.
In the case of Syndor, the report said: “The cause of death was recorded as cardio-respiratory failure with antecedent cause due to hepatorenal syndrome (Annexure 5). There was no post-mortem examination which was conducted on the deceased and the body was transported from the hospital to Khanapara in an ambulance arranged by Arup Jerial Passah as per the request made by the family members.”
On the allegation of the Meghalaya Users Forum (MUF), the report said that on November 25, Jyrwa’s family members rebutted the allegation that he was tortured at the Alive Again Foundation Centre in Assam. It also said the family members clarified in a press conference in Shillong that the statement made by MUF is false and made with malafide intention to tarnish the name of the deceased.
The magisterial probe was conducted by Shanborlang Warjri, the Additional District Magistrate of East Khasi Hills after visiting the residences of the deceased and recording the statements of their family members.
According to the report submitted to the state government, the family members of Syndor visited the Hynniewtrep Youth Council (HYC) office in Mawlai Nongkwar as they heard that the HYC is assisting in rehabilitating drug users. The members of HYC said they would help him with rehabilitation at the Better Living Wellness Foundation in Assam’s Mangaldai, which was owned by Passah.
After a couple of days, Syndor was dropped at the office of the HYC, whose members took him to the Mangaldai centre.
At around 10 pm on November 18, Passah informed the family that Syndor was sick and was vomiting continuously despite being given medicine. At around 8.30 am the following day, Passah called again to inform the family that Syndor passed away at the JNSM Polyclinic cum Diagnostic Centre and Paramedical Training Institute at Mangaldai.
The report stated that since the family members did not know the location of the hospital, they requested Passah to make arrangements to transport Syndor’s body up to Khanapara from where they received it in an ambulance arranged by Passah.
The report said that when the family members checked the body at the time of bathing it as is customary before the funeral, they did not find any injury marks or scars. As such, they did not suspect any foul play in Syndor’s death.
The probe report stated that in the first week of May 2024, the family members of Jyrwa contacted Passah and met him at Oasis restaurant in Mawkhar regarding the drug rehabilitation treatment. Accordingly, Jyrwa was admitted to the Alive Again Foundation in Guwahati on May 11.
It also said the family members went to visit him after three weeks but were not allowed to meet him according to the protocol of the rehabilitation centre. In the meantime, they managed to speak to Passah and his colleague Vijay Sohtun on the phone. The duo always stated that Jyrwa was doing well and recovering and that they needed to wait for at least three months to be able to meet him.
“It was only on October 22 that they were allowed to visit him at the centre in Guwahati. Their first impression of Jyrwa was that he was showing great signs of recovery and was healthy. His facial and bodily appearances improved significantly. He seemed happy and did not have any complaints of sickness, ill-treatment/harassment or about the arrangements made at the centre in terms of stay and food. He agreed to stay longer till December 2024 so he can further improve his recovery,” it stated.
According to the report, “After the visit on October 22, the relatives did not get to speak to Jyrwa and thought of revisiting him in December. However, on November 20 at around 8 am, they got a call from Passah that Jyrwa had passed away and that his body was at the Guwahati Accident, Trauma and Emergency (GATE) Hospital.”
The report said the family members were informed that Jyrwa had complained of stomach ache the previous night and the caretakers at the centre gave him medicine thinking it was gastritis. They also gave him some rice with red tea. But his condition did not improve till early morning. So they took him to the GATE Hospital but he was declared brought dead by the medical officer on duty on November 20 at 7.57 am. Immediately, at around 9 am, the relatives went to GATE Hospital and took possession of the body of the deceased.
“When they checked the dead body at the time of bathing it as is customary before the funeral, they did not find any injury mark or scar. As such, they did not suspect any foul play in the death of (L) Rickelson Jyrwa,” it added.
The inquiry report from Assam on the circumstances surrounding the suspicious deaths is awaited.