TURA:
A 32-year-old man who happens to be the prime accused in the rape and murder of a 12-year-old girl in a Garo village has been finally caught after being on the run for four days and seeking refuge in a forest near his village on August 7.
Police flushed out the accused rapist and murderer Chandma M Sangma from the Jengrapara forest in Bikonggre on Sunday night after villagers tipped them off about his sighting in the area.
Teams of police from Phulbari station in West Garo Hills descended on the Jengrapara village for an extensive operation that lasted an entire day before he was caught on Sunday night. Vigilant villagers had tipped off the police about the accused who had committed the heinous crime of sexual assault and later slit the throat of the child to try and avoid getting caught.
Her parents who had gone to attend a funeral in the village on August 3rd returned to find their daughter dead surrounded in a pool of blood. She had earlier accompanied her father and mother to the funeral but returned home to complete some task when the predator, who also happened to be her neighbour, took advantage of the absence of the family to commit the crime.
The chilling murder had sent shockwaves across the region and the community and the irony was that the same accused had been chargesheeted in another rape/molestation/criminal intimidation case that took place just the previous year, in 2022.