Shillong, Sep 17: Police announced a breakthrough in the investigation into the death of 4-year-old Insaphira Lyngdoh Mawnai, who drowned at a construction site in Nongrah Nonglum, with a neighbourhood boy admitting a connection to the tragedy.
Addressing the press this evening, East Khasi Hills Superintendent of Police (SP) Vivek Syiem confirmed the involvement of a 13-year-old juvenile in the incident.
Syiem said the Special Investigation Team (SIT) had been probing the case since the body was recovered on September 15. After examining several witnesses and gathering evidence, investigators zeroed in on the boy, who is a neighbour of the victim and a frequent visitor to her house.
According to Syiem, the juvenile was produced before the Child Welfare Committee, where he admitted that, on the day of the incident, he took the girl over the wall of her house and through a beaten path to the construction site. As it was raining, the cavity between the building and the retaining wall had filled with water. The boy claimed that his feet slipped while washing off mud, pulling the girl along with him. She drowned in the cavity, while he sustained injuries to his feet.
“Out of panic and confusion, he placed a stone on the child’s body before returning home. Later, he joined the search party with his mother when relatives and neighbours were looking for the girl,” Syiem said.
The juvenile further admitted that he had fabricated the story of a black Scorpio with masked men, hoping to distract attention after panicking.
The postmortem report, received on Wednesday, confirmed death due to drowning. There were no injuries prior to death, no signs of sexual assault and the time of death was estimated at 24 to 36 hours before the examination. Police stressed that the findings confirm the child died at the construction site where she was discovered.
The case began on September 14 when Rynjah Police Station received information from the victim’s father that his daughter had gone missing around 8am. She was last seen playing in the compound of her house at 7:30am. A massive search operation was launched by the police, Village Defence Party (VDP) and dog squad but the child could not be traced.
The next morning, at around 8am, the girl’s body was discovered by a labourer at a construction site barely 100 metres from her home. Police cordoned off the area, conducted an inquest with the forensic team and sent the body to NEIGRIHMS for autopsy. A murder case was registered at Rynjah Police Station, and the SIT was constituted of senior officers.
The SP clarified that the boy did not confess his involvement to his mother or anyone else. “He had concocted the story about masked men to mislead everyone. In fact, he was part of the search party,” Syiem said.
The SIT established that the boy had taken Insaphira to the construction site. Robbery was not a factor as her gold earrings were intact. There was also no sign of sexual assault and no external injuries to her body. It was also established that the cause of death was indeed drowning. Although the boy said that the death was an accident, police are still investigating this.
On claims by the victim’s relatives that the search had covered the construction site earlier, Syiem explained that the cavity was filled with rainwater and cement sediment, making the body difficult to detect. “Unless one went very close, the body could not be seen. It was only spotted by the labourer,” he said.
The SP noted that while the boy appears street-smart, he has struggled academically. The SIT, along with the Child Welfare Committee, is now examining his background and antecedents.
The boy, who lives just 50 metres from the victim’s house, has been sent to a juvenile home for observation. He has undergone a thorough medical check-up and has been produced before the Juvenile Justice Board.
Syiem emphasised that the case is still under active investigation. “It is proven that the boy was involved in taking the girl to the site and that she died due to drowning. But whether it was accidental or otherwise needs to be established. The SIT has 90 days to investigate the matter further,” he said.
While encouraging, there are still questions to be answered and the family of the beloved child must continue to wait and bear their grief while the investigation progresses.
