Meghalaya state BJP vice-president Bernard N. Marak, accused in an immoral trafficking case, was arrested from Hapur in Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday evening.
West Garo Hills superintendent of police (SP) V.S. Rathore said Marak was arrested by the Hapur district police around 7.15pm. “We got to know his location and provided the information to the Hapur SP whose prompt action led to the arrest of the accused. He was travelling in a car,” Rathore told The Telegraph.
A district police team will fly from Guwahati to Delhi and then travel to Hapur, he said. “We will be able to bring him back by Thursday after completing all formalities,” Rathore said.
A local court on Monday issued a non-bailable arrest warrant against Marak, whowas absconding since a police raid at his farmhouse Rimpu Bagan near Tura on Saturday revealed he was allegedly running a brothel there.
Meghalaya Police issued a lookout notice for the militant-turned-politician on Tuesday.
Five minors were rescued and 68 persons were arrested from the farmhouse during the raid, the police said.
Investigation into a sexual assault case registered in February resulted in the police raid at Rimpu Bagan. The minor victim had told the court that she and her friend were taken to the farmhouse where she was sexually assaulted several times.
The sexual assault case was registered under IPC sections 366A (procuration of minor girl), 376 (punishment for rape) and sections of the POCSO Act, the police said.
Marak, who is also an elected member of the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council, has refuted the charges and accused the police of trying to eliminate him.
“I am not absconding or evading arrest but I am trying to save myself ... My life is under threat from the goons in the police department. I will cooperate with the investigation once I am back on the safe route,” the 52-year-old had said in a statement on Sunday.
Marak also claimed he was in Shillong when the raid took place and the ruling National People’s Party (NPP) “always targeted” him. He said the growing support for the BJP in Garo Hills “has become a threat to the NPP and its chief”.
Chief minister Conrad Sangma is also the NPP chief. Both Sangma and Marak hail from Tura in West Garo Hills district.
The state BJP, which is a part of the ruling alliance government led by the NPP, also threw its weight behind Marak with state BJP president Ernest Mawrie issuing a statement on Sunday that Marak was being “unjustly framed and maligned” and that he was “victim of a political vendetta against him”.
Urging the police to stop the “harassment”, Mawrie said: “The very act of political vendetta upon our BJP workers is highly condemnable and the action by the police department has angered all state karyakartas... In this regard, an emergency meeting will be held on Wednesday at the state party office.”
Chief minister Sangma and deputy chief minister Prestone Tynsong on Monday asserted that everything was being done in accordance with the law.
“The law is the same for all and law will take its own course. There is no interference (from our end),” Tynsong said, adding that if his (Marak) life was under threat he should have filed an FIR.
