GUWAHATI
The death of three minors in less than a month has rattled Meghalaya, triggering demands for effective policing, surveillance, and the revival of the local defence organisations.
The chain of events began on September 14 when the body of a four-year-old girl was found face down in a pool of water in the Nongrah area of Shillong, the State’s capital. Shock turned into outrage a few days later after the police detained a 13-year-old boy in connection with the girl’s death.
The boy had allegedly cooked up a story about the girl’s disappearance, but told the police later that the girl drowned when both of them slipped and fell into the stagnant pool of water. The police are, however, probing the possibility of the girl having been killed elsewhere and dumped in the pool.
On October 9, a seven-year-old boy was found dead under mysterious circumstances in the same area of Shillong. In less than 24 hours, the body of a 13-year-old girl was recovered near a village in the Ri-Bhoi district.
A day later, the district police arrested a 22-year-old man on charges of raping and murdering the girl. “We shall file a charge sheet in this case after completing the legal formalities,” the district’s Senior Superintendent of Police, Vivekanand Singh Rathore, said.
The police also said that the accused would be listed in the National Database on Sexual Offenders.
Government slammed
Expressing deep concern over the death of the minors, the Meghalaya State Commission for Protection of Child Rights sought the “urgent implementation” of the model standard operating procedures for tracing missing or kidnapped children to ensure timely and effective intervention in such incidents.
The Commission sought a thorough investigation and stressed the need to identify and bring to justice those responsible for the minors’ deaths without delay.
The National People’s Party-led State government has assured justice for the families of the victims. However, Deputy Chief Minister in charge of Home (Police), Prestone Tynsong, attracted flak for blaming parents for the safety and security of children in the State.
“His statement is irresponsible, insensitive, shocking, and unbecoming of his position,” the Hynniewtrep Youth Council, a community-based organisation, said.
Another organisation, the Jaintia Students’ Union, said the State government should take a serious note of the string of child murders and revive the local defence organisations to restore confidence and bolster community safety. These defence bodies were disallowed years ago.
Joplyn Scott Shylla, the president of Meghalaya’s Mahila Congress, slammed the State government for failing to provide effective policing even after the installation of CCTV cameras and the establishment of the Integrated Command and Control Centre.
According to the National Crime Records Bureau, the rate of total crime against children in Meghalaya in 2023 was 37.1%. The number of such cases in the largely matrilineal State with 13.8 lakh children increased from 481 in 2021 to 512 in 2023.
Published – October 13, 2025 02:25 am IST
