No prima facie evidence of foul play

Death of migrant workers

From Staff Correspondent

Shillong, April 7: Meghalaya police today said the initial inquest into the death of fourteen migrant workers in East Jaintia Hills do not point at foul play.

Fourteen labourers from Assam died in a suspected case of food poisoning in a remote village under Saipung block of East Jaintia Hills district. The matter came into light on Monday after the people noticed the victims lying dead in the temporary shift camp.

The incident took place at Umphum, 15 kilometers from Saipung police station, an area where they were engaged in a road construction work.

East Jaintia Hills superintendent of police MH Dkhar told The Sentinel that the initial inquest does not point to any foul play. “They seem to have died due to food poisoning and there is no single evidence indicating at a murder angle,” stated Dkhar.

Initial evidence indicated that the workers might have used wild fruits to make a chutney for consuming with the evening meal.

Dkhar said that there is no evidence of strangulation. Police have also not found any materials that can be linked to murder. “All of them were found dead in their beds with saliva flowing out of their mouths,” stated Dkhar quoting the findings of the investigating officer.    

 The postmortems of the deceased were completed late this evening and the bodies handed over to family members who took them to their respective villages.  All those who died hailed from Dhubri and Golakganj area of Assam and were involved in a road construction work under a Centrally sponsored scheme.

The deceased have been identified as Jahirul Haquip, Md Imul Haquip, Md Mafigul Haquip, Amal Mani Das, Md Mansoor Ali, Md Karim Ahmed, Saphikull Ali, Majimur Ali, Md Hachen Ali, Moni Hussain, Md Mazid Ali, Md Shohidur Hussain, Md Jahirul Haquip and Md Mil Haque.