Tumi Gangkak’s death was not a suicide: Jarpum Gamlin

 A CORRESPONDENT

ITANAGAR: Jarpum Gamlin said that the family is ready to exhume the body of Tumi Gangkak for yet another post-mortem (PM) to prove that his mysterious death was not a suicide, as repeatedly claimed by the police department.

Gamlin, who is a close relative of the Gangkak, while addressing the reporters at the press club on Saturday, said that the deceased family and the Galo Welfare Society (GWS) strongly condemned the narrative of ‘suicide’ being created by the investigating agency just relying on the PM report.

He said the recent statement made by the state police spokesperson Sanjay Bhatia questioning the deceased over the APPSC corpus funds, possessing an exam manuscript, and repeatedly stressing upon the Google search on ‘depression’ in the media is merely an attempt to build a different narrative to the case. “The claim of the police that Gangkak possessed an amount of Rs. 13.40 lakh is totally an attempt to malign his clean image. The commission lacks a standard operating procedure (SOP) in regard to the usage of corpus funds. We have every detail of the expenditure made by the deceased, which is totally not as claimed by the police spokesperson,” he said.

Moreover, it should be known to all that Gangkak was not only given a clean chit by the CBI but also by the state police of SIT and SIC. Therefore, there is no chance that he was involved in any kind of unprofessional conduct. However, the GWS didn’t deny that the deceased possessed the exam manuscript.

As per the police, Gangkak googled about depression on February 21. Surprisingly, on the same day, from around 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., Gangkak was under questioning, and no accused is allowed to carry a phone. Also, where was the deceased 7 to 8 hours before the incident?

“The police should specifically tell the public who was googling at that time. Also looking out for the reasons for depression doesn’t ensure that the deceased was planning to commit suicide,” he said, adding that no blades were found in the deceased’s house as claimed by the police. He said the police, besides looking at the wider options of the incident, should not draw a final conclusion. Moreover, the GWS stands by the statement that the death of Gangak was more of a simple suicide and still suspects the involvement of Inspector (SIC) Bumchu Krong and Tapun Messar.

He said that GWS doesn’t claim that Bumchu Krong and Tapun Messar are the murderers, but a thorough investigation of the officials will reveal the truth behind the death of Gangkak. “Gangak was summoned by Krong to verify the signatures relating to the APPSC before his mysterious death. Why would an officer be summoned who was never a part of that signature verification of the papers of the year 2017? This clearly indicates that the investigating officer, Krong, knows something about the death,” he said.

Gamlin further claimed that there may be a couple of reasons for suicide, but there are hundreds of reasons to murder Gangkak. Gangak has been repeatedly questioning the commission on the illegalities being carried out there since the day of his appointment in the office.

He said the deceased had many times written to the commission over the illegalities in the commission, to which the commission never responded. Gangkak knew all about the illegalities, and hence he was murdered.

“The police team should come up with a proper motive behind the mysterious death besides claiming it was suicide. Building a narrative of suicide by the state police is not acceptable. We hope that they will perform better to unearth the truth, as Gangak was prime witness to entire illegalities in the APPSC paper leakage scam,” he added.

Gangkak, who served as undersecretary of APPSC, was found dead under mysterious circumstances near the Ganga Lake area, along the Jote-Poma road, on February 24. His body was found hanging, with his wrists and Achilles tendons on both legs slit.

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