Mokokchung, August 22 (MTNews): Henveih Phom, a 34-year-old Naga youth from Anaki C village in Mokokchung district reportedly died on August 21 while being held by Assam Police at Geleki police station.
According to a reliable source, Phom was detained by Assam Police while on his way to sell a gun on Tuesday, August 16 after getting in touch with an interested buyer.
He, together with a female accomplice, was stopped by the Assam Police at a neighboring tea garden of Anaki C village, who were reportedly led by the officer-in-charge of Geleki Police Station, Assam, as they were on their way to meet the buyer.
Following their detention, the Anaki C Village Council hurried to the police station where they were instructed to pay 1 lakh INR to release the woman on bail.
After some haggling, the villagers agreed to pay 50,000 INR for the woman’s release, but the police refused to grant Phom bail because it was a “serious case.”
The villagers left Phom in the police’s custody and went back to their village. However, the police pronounced him dead on Sunday, the fifth day following his detention. The same evening at 8:30, the villagers went to retrieve his body and the funeral was reportedly performed on Monday morning.
Although the post-mortem has reportedly noted that “he did not struggle much,” the villagers suspects that the dead was due to police brutality after seeing the bruises on his body.
Tuli police and Anaki C village council chairman could not be reached despite repeated attempts till the time of filing this report.