Making his first statement regarding the sensational arrest of Tura MDC and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state vice-president Bernard Marak, leader of the opposition Dr Mukul Sangma today said that the BJP should produce substantive proof about its claims of a political vendetta against Marak.
The MDC has been under arrest since late last month after police raided a property belonging to him in Tura on suspicion that it was being used as a brothel. Marak is a fierce opponent of Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma and was known to have been keen to challenge the CM in his South Tura Assembly seat at the next election.
Marak’s allies in the BJP, such as state party president Ernest Mawrie, were quick to defend him and claim that he was a victim of a political vendetta.
Dr Sangma today stated that such allegations are extremely concerning.
“If we go by the statement of the BJP leadership, then the public has to have apprehensions that the government is misusing the law enforcing agencies. That is a very dangerous input and a matter of great concern,” he said. “If we go by the inputs being shared by the police, I think the overall course of the case will indicate whether it was a vendetta or otherwise. We will have to allow the law to take its own course.”
Dr Sangma said it would be better if the BJP produced evidence for its claims that the police were used by figures in the government to create this case against Marak.
“The bigger concern (if there is misuse of the police) is that it can be done to political leaders of the ruling national party then what is going to happen to the common man?” he stated.
