The prime suspect in a brutal murder that shook Umtasor village died while in police custody on May 25.
Phurly Suting was apprehended in connection with the case and remanded to police custody for three days by the Ri-Bhoi District Court.
Amison Muruh, a youth from Umtasor, was fatally attacked on the evening of May 23 by an assailant who used a sharp object to stab him in the back of the neck. Police apprehended Suting on the very night of the murder.
This is the second custodial death in Ri-Bhoi in one month, with one Rudra Rabha having allegedly hanged himself in his cell in Khanapara police station while in custody on an arms charge.
Ri-Bhoi Superintendent of Police Jagpal Singh Dhanoa revealed that Suting, while in custody on May 24, displayed signs of aggression and mental instability. Consequently, he was taken for medical examination at Nongpoh Civil Hospital on the afternoon of May 25 and was subsequently referred to MIMHANS in Shillong. Suting was then pronounced dead on arrival at MIMHANS.
The deceased’s body was then transferred to the Shillong Civil Hospital morgue where an inquest was conducted under the supervision of a magistrate from the office of the Deputy Commissioner of East Khasi Hills in the presence of a medical officer from the hospital. An autopsy was then carried out, all under the guidelines of the National Human Rights Commission.
An unnatural death case has been registered under Umiam police station.
