No communal angle to assault case at Golflink: SP

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaMarch 26, 2021

The state police on Friday said effort is being made to arrest the culprits involved in assaulting the two local boys at Golflink area.

In a statement, East Khasi Hills district police chief Sylvester Nongtnger said there is no communal angle to the case of assault that has been established in the investigation so far.

“Both the injured persons are still under treatment and hence have not provided any statement. A sustained effort is being made to identify and arrest the culprits,” he said.

This came following allegations that the local boys were assaulted by a group of 20 people belonging to non-indigenous communities.

A formal complaint has been lodged by the father of one of the victims at Pasteur Beat house following which a case has been registered with the Sadar police station.

On March 21, two boys were found lying unconscious at the Golf Course near the forested area and were immediately shifted to an ambulance for medical help.

The SP said that during initial enquiry, statements of eyewitnesses at the PO were recorded who revealed that the victims were part of a group who were playing football at Golf link on the 21st March, 2021 at around 5.00 PM.

“After the game, they stayed back and consumed some local liquor. Later in the evening more groups of people arrived at the same area for similar activities. The victim’s party got into an altercation with one such group but eventually they compromised and began revelling together,” he said.

At this point, he said the loud noise emanating from their group irked a third party in the vicinity who then reacted by pelting beer bottles towards the victim’s group.

“The eyewitnesses further revealed that the members of the third party belong to a tribal community of Meghalaya as per their language and accent. Thereafter, the eyewitnesses fled from the area,” Nongtnger said.

After an interval they came back to look for their friends and found the victims lying unconscious with a crowd gathered around them. However, the identity of the assailants could not be ascertained, he added.