The guide’s statement, if it’s really authentic, can give a vital clue to the police to solve the puzzling murder and disappearance case.
Bhopal: A local tourist guide at Sohra in Meghalaya has claimed that he had spotted three men along with the Indore couple on the day of the latter’s disappearance while they were returning to Mawlakhiat village from Nongriat village and that they were talking in Hindi which he couldn’t understand much due to language barrier.
As per a local English daily Shillong Times, the tourist guide named Albert Pde shared this information with two local journalists one of whom belongs to the same English daily.
He also shared with the two journalists that he had given his statement to the police as well.
It’s perhaps the first time when such an account has come from any person who has claimed that he had seen some people with the couple.
The guide’s statement, if it’s really authentic, can give a vital clue to the police to solve the puzzling murder and disappearance case.
While Raja’s dead body was recovered from a deep gorge near Weisawdong water falls on June 2 with his valuable belongings worth Rs 10 lakh missing his wife Sonam continues to remain untraceable even after a fortnight of their disappearance.
Mawlakhiat village is the main access point to famous Double Decker Living Root Bridge at Nongriat village in Meghalaya’s East Khasi Hills district. The couple first reached Mawlakhiat on a scooty they had rented from Shillong, the state capital of Meghalaya.
They couple had parked the scooty at Mawlakhiat and then trekked 3000 steps to Nongriat with help of a local guide Bha Wansai.
The couple spent their night at a Homestay at Nongriat village and checked out at 6 am the next day on their return journey to Mawlakhiat.
Albert told the journalists he had sought to know from the couple on May 22 evening if they needed a guide but their response was in negative.
He said next day (May 23) he saw the couple around 10 am while he was on his way to the Double Decker Root Bridge. The couple was returning to the parking lot. “Sonam who was behind Raja and the latter were engaged in a friendly conversation with three “tourists” talking in Hindi”, said the guide as per the English daily.
When asked by journalists if he had seen something suspicious the guide said he didn’t understand Hindi much and also he didn’t talk to the couple as they were returning from Nongriat village and had already refused his offer the day earlier.
In reply to a question the guide claimed as Meghalaya government that the area was peaceful and he had never seen such an incident of crime with any tourist right from his childhood.
The local guide Bha Wansai who was engaged by the couple for his services to reach Nongriat on May 22 said it’s Sonam who spoke most of the time as Raja was not conversant in English.
He said the couple didn’t hire him for the next day as they said they were not aware of the trail.
He said neither did he see the couple leave the place nor did he spot the scooty in the parking lot.
The tourist guide Albert Pde’s statement that he had seen the couple with three men gives two possibilities- Either the three men were tourists like Raja and Sonam from the Hindi belt and they had met during the trekking or they were the criminals from the local region who knew Hindi to befriend outsiders and they committed the crime later. Only a proper investigation can establish the fact.
