Giving in to the sustained pressure, Meghalaya Chief Minister D D Lapang on Friday promised a time-bound administrative inquiry into the alleged involvement of Congress leader Thomas Nongtdu in financing the jailbreak of serial killer Fullmoon Dhar.

Lapang said the inquiry, to be headed by the Principal Secretary (Home), would be completed within two weeks. The announcement was made following protests by the Steering Committee Against Murder of Democracy (SCAMD), an umbrella organisation of 14 NGOs. They accused the CM of protecting and letting off Nongtdu, the Congress member in the Jaintia Hills Autonomous District Council who allegedly financed Dhar’s jailbreak, and demanded Lapang’s resignation.

Reviving memories of anti-corruption protests that brought down the E K Mawlong Government in 2001, thousands of people marched through the streets of Shillong. They demanded re-opening of the case against Nongtdu and removal of the DGP.

Nongtdu was arrested after Dhar’s girlfriend Ibatiplang Kharkongor told the police that he gave her Rs 1 lakh to buy arms for Dhar and smuggle them inside the Shillong jail. Dhar and six other criminals had staged a daring jailbreak on May 31. Police later hunted down Dhar and killed him in a subsequent encounter. To get to the bottom of the jailbreak, police also arrested Ibatiplang who spilled the beans and named Nongtdu.

Police, however, soon released Nongtdu saying as “Ibatiplang was of unstable mind, they could not arrest Nongtdu based on her statement”. However, the people wanted to know how the police had declared Ibatiplang of “unsound health” even though a doctor at the Civil Hospital had certified that she was “mentally and physically sound”.