CBI team arrives to probe students' murder
Source: Chronicle News Service
Imphal, September 27 2023:
A CBI team led by Special Director Ajay Bhatnagar arrived here on Wednesday afternoon to investigate the kidnapping and killing of two students after they went missing.
Photos of the bodies of the two students - Phijam Hemanjit (20) and Hijam Linthoingambi (17) - who were missing since July 6, were shared widely on social media on Monday, sparking fresh rounds of protests in the state.
The focus of the agency will be identifying the scene of crime, retrieve the bodies and nail the perpetrators.
The team will meet senior police and government officials and go through local intelligence about the tragic incident, according to sources.
The state government in consultation with the Home Ministry referred the matter to the CBI which immediately dispatched a team of officials led by Agency's second in command Bhatnagar to probe the crime.
Another senior officer, joint director Ghanshyam Upad hyay, who is already camping here, also joined the team on arrival, the sources said.
The team comprises officers who have expertise in special crime, crime scene recreation, interrogation and technical surveillance.
It will also have experts from the CBI's elite Central Forensic Science Laboratory, the sources said.
One of the two photos purportedly showed the students with two armed men and the other was of two bodies.
Police had previously said the whereabouts of the two were not known and their mobile phones were found switched off.
The last location of their mobile phones was traced to Lamdan, near a tourist spot in Churachandpur district, police had said.