GUWAHATI: Meghalaya BJP vice president Bernard Marak, who was charged with running a prostitution racket from his farmhouse at Tura in West Garo Hills district of the state, is said to be fearing for his life.
In a video message on Sunday, Marak alleged Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma of the National People’s Party (NPP) had issued directions to the police to falsely implicate him in some cases and encounter him. He said he was neither absconding nor evading arrest but just trying to be safe. He was in Shillong when the police conducted an eight-hour-long raid at his farmhouse on Friday night.
The former militant leader-turned-politician said during the raid, he was asked by a police officer to go to a police station in Shillong.
“But as I was coming out, two cars approached me. I was apprehensive because I had information that they are trying to implicate me and if possible, gun me down. So, I had to move out of Shillong and come to Guwahati,” Marak said. He rubbished the charge of running a prostitution racket.
“The charge that I was running a prostitution racket from my farmhouse was made up by the state police. Actually, I am helping underprivileged students to study. I had kept not less than 9-10 of them in my farmhouse,” he said.
Stating that the children taken into custody by the police were sponsored by him, he said the police had been to his farmhouse several times before but never did they go to “such extremes”. He said the police were trying to dig up some old cases that he was not related to.
Accusing the NPP and Sangma of conspiring against him and the BJP, Marak said, “The charges levelled against me were aimed at maligning my image and creating a fear psychosis among the public and the supporters of the BJP since it is growing in Meghalaya and I was elected to the GHADC (Garo Hills Autonomous District Council) from the CM’s Assembly constituency by defeating his candidate.”
The police had on Saturday said they “rescued” five children from the farmhouse by breaking the lock of a room where they were kept hidden. During the eight-hour-long raid, the police recovered 400 bottles of liquor, and 500 packets of condoms and contraceptive pills among others.
Director General of Police LR Bishnoi had said the recovery of the items indicated the farmhouse was being run as a brothel.