Gangkak death case: Police say no indictive evidence found

[ Amar Sangno ]

ITANAGAR, 27 Apr: The state police on Wednesday claimed that “no indictive technical and circumstantial evidence” has been found so far against the police officers who were under investigation vis-à-vis former APPSC undersecretary Tumi Gangkak’s mysterious death case.

In a press briefing, Arunachal Pradesh Police spokesperson Sanjay Bhatia stated, “No indictive technical and circumstantial evidence found so far, as alleged against Inspectors Bumchu Krong and Tapun Messar.”

The Galo Welfare Society (GWS) and its frontal organisation have been accusing that Inspectors Krong and Messar were involved in Gangkak’s death, and claimed that he had been murdered.

Bhatia informed that the movements of the alleged suspects (the inspectors) were verified, “and they never went to the place of occurrence (of the death).”

“We have tracked and verified the moments of Inspectors Krong and Messar. They have never gone towards the place of occurrence. Besides that, the people they were in touch with or contacted in the period of suspicion, we have found no linkage with this case,” Bhatia said.

The police further informed that Inspectors Krong and Messar never called the deceased’s widow, as alleged by the GWS, “and no such evidence of them trying to contact the deceased’s wife was found.”

The police added that Inspector Techi Nega, who was also investigating the APPSCCE scam, contacted Gangkak’s widow twice regarding the case – on 29 October and on 6 November, 2022.

On the technical evidence front, the police informed that they have found 14,000 active phone numbers. “The first layer of verification has been done, and we will do the secondary verification soon,” the police said.

The spokesperson said that the police did not find any link between the scene of the crime and the numbers. It informed also that 18 cars were thoroughly investigated but “no link of late Gangkak’s death were found in them.”

Bhatia informed that a special investigation team “is ascertaining from where he (late Gangkak) procured the blades found, used or unused, from the place of occurrence.”

“We are trying to establish the linkages to ascertain where he procured the blade. There were two major cut marks on his left wrist and right leg, but the cause of death was not from a cut mark,” he added.

The police further made a startling revelation that “the PGT-2021 exam manuscript was found from late Gangkak’s office.”

“The finding of the manuscripts of an exam which had not been completed in his office is not the right scheme of things,” Bhatia said.

He further disclosed that “eight certificates of confidentiality for exam of FAO and TO were found from late Gangkak’s car.”

“On 23 February this year, he submitted a voucher of Rs 48,000. He could not submit the voucher of Rs 13,40,000. These things are out of legality. This indicates wrong procedures. Finding manuscripts from his office and certificates of confidentiality from his car indicates that he did wrong,” Bhatia said.

The Arunachal Times has accessed a copy of the partial chargesheet filed by the CBI on 8 December, 2022, in which the CBI indicted late Gangkak for “gross violation of the standard operating procedures (SOP) of AE civil exam, 2022.”

The CBI claimed that “late Gangkak had selected NIT Jote’s Assistant English Professor K Vijayakumar for setting the English paper, who was not found in the panel of experts, and all three question setters had been asked to prepare the questions in two sets, which is against the SOP.”

“For setting of papers for AE mains English paper, Tumi Gangkak had selected K Vijayakumar. He had selected Dr Miazi Hazam of RGU for general knowledge, and Jalukbari-based Assam Engineering College Assistant Professor Pulengdra Dutta for technical paper for civil engineering,” the CBI stated.

“He had handed over the sample papers with guidelines to K Vijayakumar on 2 July, 2022; to Dr Miazi Hazam on 11 July, and to Dr Pulengdra Dutta on 20 April, 2022, requesting them to submit two sets each of question papers in sealed envelopes,” it stated.

The CBI also stated that the question papers were not even moderated.

“After receiving the sealed cover containing the manuscripts of technical examination from Dr Pulendra Dutta on 6 July, 2022, Tumi Gangkak handed over the two sealed envelopes to the moderator, Dr M Berlin, on 11 July, and after waiting, took the moderated questions in two sets in two different envelopes properly sealed by using cellotapes and signed by M Berlin on the same day.

“It may be noted here that the two sets of questions, prepared by setters K Vijayakumar for English and Dr Miazi Hazam for general knowledge, had not been given to any moderator, in gross violation of the SOP,” the CBI claimed in its chargesheet.