[Amar Sangno]
ITANAGAR, 12 Apr: In a startling revelation, the capital police on Wednesday informed that, according to the postmortem report of late Tumi Gangkak, his death was caused due to asphyxia resulting from “hanging by ligature.”
In a press conference held at the police headquarters here, Arunachal Pradesh Police spokesperson Sanjay Bhatia informed that the board of doctors which conducted the postmortem observed that the death was suicidal in nature.
Former APPSC undersecretary-cum-assistant controller of examination, Gangkak, was found dead under mysterious circumstances on 24 February. His body was found hanging, with his wrists and Achilles tendons of both legs slit, near the Ganga Lake area.
On 26 February, the widow of the deceased lodged an FIR, and a case was registered under Section 302 IPC at the Chimpu police station. Subsequently, a special investigation team (SIT) was constituted, headed by DSP (HQ) Kengo Dirchi.
“The postmortem of the deceased suggested that death is due to asphyxia resulting from hanging by ligature. The cut marks on the left wrist and on the right leg were also observed. The board of doctors has opined the death as suicidal in nature,” stated Bhatia.
The APP spokesperson added that investigation of electronic records revealed that the deceased was called by Inspector Bumchu Krong of the SIC (Vigilance) to the CBI office in Chimpu for verification of some list of signatures of evaluators on the award sheet of the 2017 civil service exams.
He went on to inform that CCTV footages revealed that Gangkak had left his residence in his Scorpio vehicle (AR-01L-1461) at around 16:07 hours on 23 February.
“The deceased stopped his vehicle near Congress Bhawan at around 16:25 hours and again left at 16:33 hours. The deceased did not go to CBI office and directly proceeded ahead and took a left turn towards the zoo,” he stated.
“The last spotted location is on the CCTV footage from KG Tayam’s residence near Ganga Lake at 16:51 hours, which is located about 300 metres away from the place of occurrence,” he added.
The police claimed that Gangkak covered the route within approximately 44 minutes and, during his journey, no one was seen entering or exiting the vehicle.
The police further disclosed that they have conducted investigation with the best possible methods, such as electronic, circumstantial, and traditional methods.
Background check was carried out on suspects, and their call records were also checked.
“We have done everything. So far in the investigation, we have not found anything against Inspectors Krong and Messar. If in the future we get anything, the investigation is open,” said the spokesperson.
“On 23 February, at around 3:48 pm, Inspector Krong summoned the deceased and spoke to the deceased for around 60-65 seconds. If we see the history of conversations, it is the gap of after 70 days on 13 December, our officer had called deceased to do some verification,” said Itanagar Additional SP Thutan Jamba.
Jamba added that, “in CDR analysis, there is no call record between Inspector Messar and Tumi Gangkak.”
“The FSL report of the biological samples is awaited. A DO letter from SP capital has been sent to the FSL, requesting to furnish the same on priority. The FSL report of electronic, including the mobile phones of the deceased, alleged suspects and CCTV footage are awaited,” stated the police.
The police also claimed that there were no threat calls or information of security threats made against the deceased, as claimed by the family members of late Gangkak.
The police also revealed that some documents and manuscripts were seized by the SIC from late Gangkak’s office, “in which certain documents were going against him regarding APPSC paper leak case.”
“There were certain things which were going against him (Tumi Gangkak) in that inquiry. But we will not get biased by that only. If he was being kind of incriminated or being targetted, that is subject matter of our investigation,” said Bhatia.
The Arunachal Times has learnt of the sordid details of Gangkak’s death report submitted to the home minister by the SIT. The SIT has mentioned that, as per the statement of the APPSC cashier, at around 11:14 am on 23 February, the deceased called him, informing that he would be submitting vouchers/cash memos relating to expenditures incurred by him for conducting various examinations.
In the confidential status report, the SIT informed that the deceased had reached the APPSC office at around 11:00 hrs and submitted a Rs 1,20,800 voucher as payment of honorarium for setting question papers for the post of FAO/TO-2022 exam.
The deceased was under suspension when he submitted the voucher and the APPCS paper leak case was already under investigation.
The SIT has also mentioned that, as per documents obtained under Section 91 CrPC from the APPSC office, the deceased had received Rs 38,01,280 in cash from the office in advance for conducting various examinations. The expenses were for question setters and moderators.
“As on 23-02-2023, the receipts/voucher of the expenditures to the tune of Rs 13,86, 833 was yet to be submitted by the deceased,” the SIT status report read.
