DIMAPUR, OCTOBER 17 (MExN): Two persons were found hacked to death along the Assam-Nagaland border about two kilometres away from the ‘Rangapahar Rail Crossing’ early Sunday morning, October 17. The deceased, natives of Toulazu Tenyimi village under Dimapur district, were identified by police as one Rokovilie Angami (32 years) and Aye Kapfo (35 years). No motive could be known, though the police suspect it to be a case of murder. The deceased were hit on the head by some sharp implements and their lifeless bodies were left along the rail tracks.
According to the villagers the bodies were found at around 6:00 am by passers-by, who informed the Assam Police and then the Nagaland Police. The jurisdiction under which the place falls cannot be established as the inter-state boundary along that stretch is not clearly defined. Locals of the surrounding area said that the spot falls under a village called Nutun Bosti on the Assam side. The village is about half a kilometre away from Sangtam Tilla on the Nagaland side of the reportedly undefined border.
Nevertheless, a case was registered at Government Railway Police Station (GRPS), Dimapur since the bodies were found right at the railway tracks. The bodies were shifted to the district hospital, Dimapur for the post-mortem and were later handed over to relatives. The autopsy report is awaited. Relatives of the deceased said that the two left their homes the previous evening on Saturday to catch frogs towards the Assam side of the Dhansiri river bank.
The murder is believed to have occurred on the intervening night of October 16 and 17. Frogs reportedly caught by them were found in the bags carried by them. According to the relatives, this gives rise to possible hints that the murder occurred while they were returning after their catch.
The relatives also suspect that the two were murdered some place else and their bodies carried to the spot where it was found, to make it appear that they were runover by train.
Police also did not rule out such a possibility.
The left forearm of one of the deceased was found severed. However, signs of haemorrhage, as is the case in an injury of so grave a nature, were not found. It gave rose to suspicion that ‘rigour mortiz’ (stiffening of the body after death) had already set in. The nature of severance of the arm, though, hinted to being runover by the wheels.
Injury marks on the skulls indicated they were mortally wounded before their bodies were dumped on the tracks. Another baffling detection was that not much blood stains were found on the shirts worn by the deceased.
