When serial killer, rapist and hitman Fullmoon Dhar was shot dead by the police after he staged a jailbreak with six other prisoners late last month, it was just the beginning of a sordid series of revelations that raised questions about the politician-criminal nexus in Meghalaya.

While, this connection was first brought to light with the June 3 arrest of Congress leader Thomas Nongtdu for financing the prison escape, the controversy heightened with his release only days later. Now, 20 NGOs under the banner of the Steering Committee Against Murder of Democracy (SCAMD) are calling for a CBI investigation into the case and are expected launch an agitation on June 12 against the D D Lapang-led Government.

To get to the bottom of the jailbreak, the police acted swiftly and arrested Dhar’s girlfriend Ibatiplang Kharkongor, who soon implicated powerful politician and businessman Nongtdu, a member of the Jaintia Hills Autonomous District Council (JHADC).

Kharkongor alleged that Nongtdu had given her Rs 1 lakh to buy arms and to smuggle them to Dhar. Based on information

provided by Kharkongor, the police arrested the Congress leader. However, even as further investigations brought to the fore indications that Dhar had also been a contract killer for some state politicians, Nongtdu was released by the police who claimed that the Jaintia Hills politician could not be arrested on the basis of accusations from a “mentally unstable” woman.