- NET Web Desk
In response to the police custody of the Vice-President of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s Meghalaya Unit – Bernard N Marak, the Meghalaya Assembly Speaker & President of United Democratic Party (UDP) – Metbah Lyngdoh noted that it was an imperative for the law to take its own course.
The court of Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) in West Garo Hills district of Meghalaya, sent Marak to six-days police custody, in connection to a case linked with the seizure of explosives from his farmhouse near Tura.
Marak was rearrested by the Meghalaya police on Wednesday night from the Tura District Jail.
He has been apprehended in connection with the seizure of nearly 35 gelatin sticks, 100 detonators apart from four cross bows and 15 arrows from the farmhouse; when a team of District Child Protection Unit and Meghalaya Police had gone to collect the clothes and books of the children, who were rescued from the premises.
The militant-turned-politician was held from Hapur in Uttar Pradesh, after nearly six children were rescued and 73 people were apprehended from a farmhouse – ‘Rimpu Bagan’.
Its worthy to note that the Meghalaya Police recently raided the farmhouse and rescued six minors – four boys and two girls, from the location.
“They were found locked inside dingy cabin-like unhygienic rooms at Rimpu Bagan run by Bernard N Marak and his accomplices as a ‘brothel’ for the purpose of prostitution,” – informed the SP, West Garo Hills district.
During the raid, nearly 400 bottles of liquor and over 500 unused condoms were also found.
Besides, 73 people were arrested for their indulgence in such “nefarious acts”, been operated along the farmhouse, which incorporated of 30 small rooms.
It is suspected to be the place where a girl was sexually assaulted, and a case was filed in that regard in February 2022; added Singh.
A case has also been registered against Marak under the Explosives Substances Act, 1908 and Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses Act, 2012.
Marak, an elected member of the Garo Tribal Autonomous District Council, in a statement however, attacked Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma for the raid, and denied the allegations of running a “brothel”.
“The CM is getting desperate as he knows he is losing his South Tura seat to the BJP. The raid at my farmhouse is a desperate attempt by him to malign my image and a political vendetta,” he claimed.
