Indian police said that they are investigating the death’s of three Mizoram residents who were found dead in Myanmar on 25 March, according to the Indian English-language daily newspaper The Times of India [TOI].

The victims, including a woman, were residents of Siaha and Lawngtlai districts in southern Mizoram, India. Indian police said that the three individuals appeared to have been murdered and their bodies burned after their deaths.

According to TOI, unconfirmed initial reports suggested that Chin underground militants, who are fighting against Myanmar military junta, had killed the victims for cheating them out of 0.55 million Indian Rupees (about US$6,700) in an arms deal. Apparently later it was discovered that only 50,000 rupees (about US$607) had been swindled, according to the Inspector General of Police (IGP).

It has been unable to independently verify the reason for the killing.

The Indian police has also not ruled out the involvement of Myanmar army personnel in the murders.

According to TOI on 19 March, a group of four people from Siaha and Lawngtlai districts in southern Mizoram crossed the border into Ainak Village in Lawngtlai District, situated just across the Myanmar border. The group was reportedly scheduled to bring a sick person back from Myanmar.

However, the next day, after none of them returned, relatives of three out of the four individuals began searching for them.

On 22 March, the bodies of two of them were found inside Myanmar, while the third body was discovered about 50 metres away. The three bodies were brought to Mizoram by volunteers on 23 March for autopsies and funerals.

The TOI did not provide further information about the fourth individual who was not killed.