Mob Lynching in West Khasi Hills: Thirteen more arrested in Shillong

SHILLONG: The West Khasi Hills (WKH) district Police on Wednesday arrested 13 more persons involved in the act of burying alive a nonagerian — Boris Marngar — in Nongdison Village on the mere suspicion that he practised witchcraft. These persons were nabbed from Shillong after they fled the village following the arrest of seven accused last Friday.

Disclosing this to The Sentinel, the West Khasi Hills Superintendent of Police, Herbert G Lyngdoh said that the seven accused arrested earlier are now in Judicial remand. On their arrival in Nongstoin, they will be taken into police custody for questioning.

The irony is that those who allegedly committed the heinous crime are family members of the deceased.

The body of Marngar has been exhumed for autopsy and the report is awaited, said the SP. Meanwhile, a source — involved in the investigation — said that those arrested earlier have confessed of committing the crime. They also claimed that Marngar had cast an evil spell on his own niece.

While mob lynching in the name of practicing witchcraft is nothing new to the State, the latest horrible incident has again shaken the State.

"When everyone seems to be progressive in all aspects of life, yet we have some people in the community who take the retrogressive step," bemoaned Rev. Derrick P. Pariat, president of the Unitarian Union North East India.

Father John Mudur of the Shillong Catholic Arch Diocese said. "I hope the law will take its own course to punish the people involved in such a dastardly inhuman act."

Noted social activist Agnes Kharshiing said, "These mob-lynching incidents have stretched beyond the limits. We need stringent laws. There should be faster processes of investigation and prosecution of people involved in such cases."