Tura MDC and vice-president of the state Bharatiya Janata Party, Bernard N Marak, stated today that he fears for his life if he were to surrender to Meghalaya police, who want him in connection with the raid on his property on Friday, which the authorities claim was being run as a brothel.
On the day of the raid, Marak was told to report to Sadar police station here.
Today, he said that he is not absconding or evading arrest but is trying to avoid a so-called fake encounter with the police.
He named Inspector General of Police MK Singh and West Garo Hills Superintendent of Police Vivekananda Rathore as the Chief Minister’s “close men” and said that the IGP had come personally to arrest him, which made him suspicious and fearful for his life.
“They were given the task to gun me down and arrest BJP supporters,” Marak said in his explosive allegations. “My life is under threat from the goons in the police department so I moved out that night and I avoided their execution plan. Singh earlier gunned down four of my boys in a fake encounter at Darengagal in 2014. He made many attempts to gun me down when he was SP of Tura.”
The “boys” Marak refers to were members of the A’chik Nationalist Voluntary Council (B), a militant group of which he was a leader. Rathore had referred to Marak’s rebel past in his press release issued yesterday.
Marak is one of the fiercest critics of the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance government and is thought to be considering a run against Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma in the South Tura constituency at next year’s state elections.
Police believe that the ‘farmhouse’ was the place where a minor girl had been raped repeatedly earlier this year. In its Friday raid, the authorities found large amounts of alcohol, hundreds of unused condoms and children kept in “dingy” conditions. The police, who detained 73 people, described the building as a brothel, claiming that many youngsters were openly drinking in various states of undress when the raid took place.
“The support for the BJP has grown in Garo Hills, which has become a threat to the NPP (National People’s Party) and its chief (Sangma),” Marak said.
