Cheristerfield Thangkhiew operated his militant activities including IED explosions and extortions under the name of Sanbor Pala one month before he was killed by police in his residence at Mawlai here.
This was as per the enquiry report of Justice T Vaiphei which was made public today.
According to the report, between 2020 and 2021, three IED explosions were carried out by the proscribed HNLC in East Jaiñtia Hills. These include IED explosion on November 26, 2020 which took place at Soo Kilo market, IED explosion at Star Cement factory on February 12, 2020 at Lumshnong and a failed explosion at Meghalaya Coke Factory at Bther on January 17, 2021.
In the first two explosion cases, the HNLC claimed responsibility and two persons were arrested in connection with the crime.
On the intervening night of July 13 and 14, 2021 at around 1:40 am, an explosion took place in one of the residential quarters at Police Reserve, Khliehriat causing bodily injury to two police personnel and substantially damaging the police quarters. According to police, the intention behind the explosion was to cause loss of life to the police personnel and damage government property.
Two of the arrested persons in their statements admitted their involvement in the three other IED explosions and that they had acted on the instructions of Sanbor Pala. The press release issued by the HNLC claimed responsibility for the explosion.
Another explosion occurred on August 10, 2021 at Laitumkhrah at about 1:30 pm, which resulted in injury to two persons and caused damage to public property, for which a case was registered at Laitumkhrah police station.
Meanwhile, in the aftermath of the Khliehriat bomb blast incident on July 14, 2021, a Special Investigation Team (SIT) was constituted for expeditious and thorough investigation into the case.
Acting on source information, the investigation team identified certain suspects and stepped up vigil and started electronic surveillance as well as physical surveillance.
“The mastermind/architect of these IED explosions was one person by the name of Sanbor Pala, who used to offer money to the accused persons for successfully making IED and exploding them at his instructions. It was also revealed that Sanbor Pala was communicating with the accused persons from a Bangladesh number. In at least three out of the four IED explosions, the two accused were involved and were acting on the instructions of the said Sanbor Pala,” the report said, quoting the deposition by police.
Based on the information, the SIT in the Khliehriat blasts case commenced investigation to find out the identity of Sanbor Pala as disclosed by the accused arrested after the Khliehriat blasts. Based on their disclosures, the name of one of the suspects came up. The SIT team commenced surveillance of the said suspect and started tracking him.
Thereafter, several recoveries including recovery of phones utilised for receiving· instructions from HNLC operators were made while the vehicle in which the accused party transported the IED was seized.
On July 19, 2021, one accused received a package from one person at Motphran and upon his return journey, he was apprehended and arrested at Mawryngkneng and was handed over to Khliehriat police station. Cash of Rs 60,000 was also recovered from him.
To follow up the lead and identify the person who had paid the money, the SIT seized CCTV camera footage. Upon examination of the CCTV footage, a person, having identical physical profile of Cheristerfield Thangkhiew, handing over a packet was caught on CCTV footage.
In order to corroborate the presence of Thangkhiew, his Call Detail Record (CDR) was also requisitioned and at the date and time when the money was received, Thangkhiew was found to be at the very same location.
In order to firm up the lead, and since the person in CCTV footage was wearing a mask, the Internet Protocol Detail Record (IPDR) was also requisitioned which substantiated the suspicion that it was Thangkhiew who had paid the money.
However, the involvement of the said Sanbor Pala in extortion cases and also in IED explosions was also being reported in multiple investigations. Accordingly, intensive surveillance on Thangkhiew was conducted with the hope that he would lead the team to Sanbor Pala.
“At that time, the police were under the impression that Thangkhiew was facilitating Sanbor Pala and therefore, his arrest was considered crucial to prevent further commission of offences,” the report said.
According to the police, parallel to the above investigations in IED explosions, during the period between July and August 2021, there was also a spurt of extortion demand notes being served.
In the course of investigation of these extortion, FIRs, an evidence was unearthed in early August 2021 that Thangkhiew was suspected to be operating under an alias name Sanbor Pala and was extorting money to fund militant activities of the HNLC in the form of IED explosions, etc.
It would appear from the statement that several other such cases of similar notes were received between July 26, 2021 and July 30, 2021 from the same Sanbor Pala using the same number which was informed to the police in confidence without registering formal complaints. In some of these cases, FIRs were subsequently registered.
As per the report, the breakthrough in the extortion cases came on the complaint of one person (whose name was withheld by the police) who approached the police confidentially on August 2, 2021 with similar allegation as detailed earlier regarding demand notes received by him on July 15, 2021 from the HNLC. The investigating team was given an audio recording of the extortionist, and upon analysing the voice of the extortionist and comparing the same against the control sample derived from publicly available audio recordings and video addresses of Thangkhiew, “it gave rise to the suspicion of the investigating officer of the Khliehriat IED explosion case that the caller and Thangkhiew were one and the same person”.
“The audio sample was seized and sent for forensic examination on August 2, 2021. Thus, the police came to draw the following inferences that one accused was being used by Sanbor Pala to instruct accused persons in IED explosions and another accused was being used by the same Sanbor Pala to make extortion demands on behalf of HNLC. The audio of Sanbor Pala recorded prima facie matched that of Thangkhiew. Thangkhiew had been found by clinching evidence to have delivered money to a known accused in the Khliehriat IED explosions on July 14, 2021,” the report said.
“Around August 7, 2021, when the audio was compared against as the control sample of the deceased obtained from publicly available audio recording and the same was played to various sources who knew and were aware of the voice of Thangkhiew, it became clear to the investigating team that the voice on the recording was that of Thangkhiew. Therefore, on August 7, 2021, it became clear for the first time to the SIT that the man behind all the IED blasts under investigation and all extortion demands is none other than Thangkhiew operating under the alias of Sanbor Pala using the same Bangladeshi phone number and that there was a strong possibility of Thangkhiew operating under the pseudonym of Sanbor Pala after coming overground by purportedly retiring from HNLC activities,” the report further said.
It was on the basis of the above materials, that the police started carrying out surveillance of Thangkhiew with a view to identify opportune moments for his arrest along with necessary incriminating evidence which would assist in bringing down the underground cadres of HNLC as well. During the period of such surveillance, an IED explosion was again carried out on August 10, 2021 at Laitumkhrah which indicated the serious threat of HNLC.
Thereafter, specific and confirmed inputs were received on August 11, 2021 and August 12, 2021 giving warning of the possibility of another explosion at Punjabi Lane, Secretariat, Iewduh, etc in Shillong. As already noticed, the investigation in the Khliehriat IED explosion case had revealed the possibility of a second IED remaining with HNLC cadre which further fortified the possibility of such an IED blast.
On August 12, 2021, a high level meeting of all top officials of the Police Department including officers involved in the investigation and collection of evidence was held in the Police Headquarters. In that meeting, the evidence collected so far were evaluated in a threadbare manner, which left not an iota of doubt as to the active involvement of Thangkhiew in the illegal activities of HNLC and of the possibility of another IED explosion from August 13 to 15, 2021, which was considered to be looming large.
“It was under the aforesaid circumstances that a decision was taken by the DGP, Meghalaya to arrest Thangkhiew expeditiously and without giving any opportunity to him to either abscond or destroy critical evidence, which are necessary to establish his culpability in the Khliehriat IED explosion case and other offences committed by him,” the report said.
