Staff REPORTER

ITANAGAR, Jun 9: The Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Arunachal Pradesh Police today claimed to have cracked the murder mystery of a tea garden worker of Namsai district with the arrest of the prime accused in the case.

The tea garden worker Uday Malar was killed allegedly by two persons Mojen Moran and Babul Neog near the tea garden at Dhonekona village under Namsai circle on 8th August, 2017.

The accused persons were on the run after committing the crime. The police had no clue about their whereabouts except for their names as there were no eye witnesses to prove their involvement.  

SP (SIT) Rohit Rajbir Singh said today that the SIT conducted a raid at No. 1 Kakajan village under Philobari PS in Assam’s Tinsukia district on the intervening night of June 7 and 8 and arrested Mojen Moran, 28, in connection with the 2017 murder case.

Addressing a press conference at the Police Headquarters here, the SP informed that the case was transferred to SIT in mid 2018 as there was no clue available about the suspects, except their names.

“Over the years, many attempts were made to locate the accused persons, but in vain,” he said. “A fresh impetus was given to this case at the start of this year, and a dedicated team led by SI Kamnu Wangsu was tasked to work on developing human intelligence in the Moran majority areas of Namsai and Tinsukia in Assam.”

He said the Assam elections served us with an opportunity to make use of the updation exercise of voters' list, and we found out that Mojen Moran was recently registered as an active voter in Doom Dooma circle of Tinsukia district.

After ascertaining the presence of the accused in one of the identified hideouts, a plan was formulated by the SP (SIT) in consultation with DySP W Ramwa and OC/SIT Inspector Ngilyang Lali. Accordingly, the team led by Inspector Ashok Tayeng arrested the accused Mojen Moran.

During the course of interrogation, it was revealed that the deceased Uday Malar and main accused Mojen Moran were acquaintances. They developed enmity over petty monetary disputes on account of consumption of ganja. So, Mojen along with his associate, Babul, formulated a plan to eliminate Uday due to their ongoing issues. The two accused persons then lured the victim on the pretext of sorting out things by discussion, but instead attacked him on the neck with a dao, and kept slashing till he died, the SP said, while informing that further investigation is on to trace out the absconding co-accused, Babul Neog.