GUWAHATI
The demise of three minors in lower than a month has rattled Meghalaya, triggering calls for for efficient policing, surveillance, and the revival of the native protection organizations.
The chain of occasions started on September 14 when the physique of a four-year-old lady was discovered face down in a pool of water within the Nongrah space of Shillong, the State’s capital. Shock became outrage just a few days later after the police detained a 13-year-old boy in reference to the lady’s demise.
The boy had allegedly cooked up a narrative concerning the lady’s disappearance, however advised the police later that the lady drowned when each of them slipped and fell into the stagnant pool of water. The police are, nevertheless, probing the opportunity of the lady having been killed elsewhere and dumped within the pool.
On October 9, a seven-year-old boy was discovered useless below mysterious circumstances in the identical space of Shillong. In lower than 24 hours, the physique of a 13-year-old lady was recovered close to a village within the Ri-Bhoi district.
A day later, the district police arrested a 22-year-old man on prices of raping and murdering the lady. “We will file a cost sheet on this case after finishing the authorized formalities,” the district’s Senior Superintendent of Police, Vivekanand Singh Rathore, stated.
The police additionally stated that the accused can be listed within the Nationwide Database on Sexual Offenders.
Authorities slammed
Expressing deep concern over the demise of the minors, the Meghalaya State Fee for Safety of Baby Rights sought the “pressing implementation” of the mannequin normal working procedures for tracing lacking or kidnapped youngsters to make sure well timed and efficient intervention in such incidents.
The Fee sought an intensive investigation and burdened the necessity to establish and produce to justice these accountable for the minors’ deaths at once.
The Nationwide Individuals’s Get together-led State authorities has assured justice for the households of the victims. Nonetheless, Deputy Chief Minister accountable for Dwelling (Police), Prestone Tynsong, attracted flak for blaming mother and father for the protection and safety of youngsters within the State.
“His assertion is irresponsible, insensitive, stunning, and unbecoming of his place,” the Hynniewtrep Youth Council, a community-based group, stated.
One other group, the Jaintia College students’ Union, stated the State authorities ought to take a critical be aware of the string of kid murders and revive the native protection organizations to revive confidence and bolster group. security. These protection our bodies have been disallowed years in the past.
Joplyn Scott Shylla, the president of Meghalaya’s Mahila Congress, slammed the State authorities for failing to supply efficient policing even after the set up of CCTV cameras and the institution of the Built-in Command and Management Centre.
In line with the Nationwide Crime Data Bureau, the speed of whole crime in opposition to youngsters in Meghalaya in 2023 was 37.1%. The variety of such instances within the largely matrilineal State with 13.8 lakh youngsters elevated from 481 in 2021 to 512 in 2023.
Revealed – October 13, 2025 02:25 am IST