SHILLONG:
A cloud is hanging over the recent elections in the Shillong Club, with one member alleging that it was blatantly rigged in favour of a few vested interests. For a venerable institution that is more than 140-year-old, the accusations make for unhappy reading.
In a complaint lodged by Shakti Laitphlang with the Sadar police station it said, “The illegal and criminal actions have materially affected the elections and its results which requires to be investigated in detail and all persons found responsible ought to be tried as per the law.”
Laitphlang of the PUMA store/ Hotel Shaurya Inn had unsuccessfully participated in the elections for the Board of Members of the Club on November 17, last year.
As soon as the investigation into the FIR commenced, the club management also filed a counter FIR making allegations of malpractice during the same election.
Sources reveal that the complainant is a relatively unknown member of the club who has been recently inducted. It is also revealed that the complaint of the fellow member was made as far back as on November 20, 2021 but as a retaliatory measure, the management acted on it only after police investigation began on Laitphlang’s FIR.
On condition of anonymity, members have revealed there is rampant malpractice in the elections of the Board of Directors (BoD) of the Club and Laitphlang’s FIR should be thoroughly investigated.
As an act of seeming vendetta, on January 14, 2022 the management debarred Laitphlang’s entry into the club premises and suspended his privileges without giving him an opportunity of being heard. Some members revealed that such a practice is against all norms of civility and brotherhood that the club stands for and naming and shaming members or threatening expulsion for pursuing legal remedies is tyrannical, uncivilised and uncalled for.
It is learnt that the election process is rife with allegations such as not properly notifying the elections to not issuing individual notices to the members with the sole intention of manipulating the results.