Meghalaya HC suspends trial over mysterious death of cop

Shillong, July 14 The Meghalaya High Court has suspended a trial in relation to the mysterious death of a police officer in 2014 after he had seized 32 trucks that were reportedly transporting illegally mined coal.

The Special Investigation Team (SIT) found that sub-inspector Pearlystone Joshua Marbaniang committed suicide in January 2015, which the bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice W Diengdoh acknowledged in their ruling on Wednesday as being unsettling and unsatisfactory.

“Very difficult for us to understand how a person can be shot in the back of the head. Or a person can commit suicide by shooting himself in the back of the head. So the trial has to be stopped and we will require a fresh investigation. From what we have read, it does not appear to be a case of depression.

"We owe our duty to everybody, all of us have to be fair, a person has died. No ghost came and killed him. We do not think he killed himself. Please look into it. Otherwise, people will not have confidence. It could have been your child or my child, have to be absolutely impartial," it said.

The High Court has opined for a fresh investigation in the case and halted the trial.

"Even though the state says that the trial is proceeding, it does not appear that the investigation was satisfactory. Accordingly, let the trial not be continued till further orders," the Court's order stated.

However, the SIT report also exposed the magnitude of unlawful mining, procurement, and transportation of coal, lumber, and stone throughout the state, the court said.

"Incidentally, the report of the SIT reveals what had been suspected by this Court in the matters pertaining to illegal coal mining. The SIT report indicates the existence of registers with fixed rates per truck for allowing illegal transportation of illegally-mined coal, illegally-felled timber and illegally-extracted boulders. There are names and officials have been identified in some cases," the court observed, in its order.

The matter will be heard again on July 27.

The mother of the late police officer asked the court to order the Central Investigation Agency (CBI) to look into her son's sudden death.

In March 2016, the High Court had previously rejected the argument.

Last May, the Supreme Court, which had heard the case before, sent it back to the High Court.

The High Court subsequently requested a new report from the former SIT, which included Meghalaya Police officials.

Reportedly, he was under extreme pressure to release the vehicles carrying illegal coal he had impounded the night before he was discovered dead.

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