Staff Reporter
ITANAGAR, Dec 7: Thousands including senior citizens, students, family members, and supporters of former MLA Ngurang Pinch took out a candlelight march here on Thursday evening, demanding speedy investigation into Pinch’s mysterious death during a rafting expedition on November 18.
The march, which saw the participants carrying placards reading ‘Justice for late Pinch’, was organised by the Achi Dopum Welfare Society (ADWS), with support from the Arunachal Pradesh Women’s Welfare Society (APWWS) and the All Doimukh Youth Welfare Association.
The mourners later gathered at the IG Park tennis court, where Pinch’s eldest daughter, Ngurang Meena, reiterated her claim that her father’s death was no accident but a “pre-planned murder.”
“We have given a timeframe to the SIT to unearth the truth behind my father’s death. If it fails to do so, we will demand a CBI or an NIA probe,” she said.
“Why have all 20 members of the expedition team not been arrested by the SIT for interrogation, but are roaming free?” Meena demanded to know.
She demanded that they all be arrested, including former ministers Atum Welly and Tatar Kipa.
Meena also claimed that Welly and Kipa had lied to the media and the bereaved family about the malfunctioning mobile network in the area where the death occurred. She said the BSNL’s network works in some stretches of the area.
She alleged that the expedition had been a “sex racket or a sexual expedition” involving allurement and exploitation of young girls, and requested the Arunachal Pradesh State Commission for Women to look into the matter.
Senior members Bamang Mangha and Tadar Niglar spoke about late Pinch, and recalled him as a selfless man who contributed a lot to the society and the state.
APWWS Spokesperson Gumri Ringu expressed solidarity with the ADWS’ demand for justice for late Pinch.
She expressed concern over the involvement of young girls in the expedition, and appealed to the people to support the APWWS in its fight against exploitation of women.
