Our Special Correspondent
TURA/SHILLONG:
A police raid at Rimpu Bagan farmhouse in Edenbari on the outskirts of Tura, belonging to state vice president of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Tura MDC Bernard N Marak alias Rimpu on July 22 night has revealed the premises were allegedly being used for illicit activities, including sexual crimes from the seizure of hundreds of contraceptives from dingy rooms used by customers.
The raid had its genesis in the disappearance of a minor girl in February.
“We received a complaint on February 28 from a person saying that his minor daughter, who was missing for a week, had been traced on that day by relatives along with a suspect and handed over to women police in Tura. Later, it was ascertained that the minor was sexually assaulted multiple times over one week. During recording of statement she told the court that she along with a friend were taken to Rimpu Bagan where the man hired a room in which she was sexually assaulted multiple times,” revealed West Garo Hills Superintendent of police Vivekanand Singh Rathore, who led the raid on the BJP MDC’s farm house on Friday night.
According to police, during the raid they found “scantily” clad couples in different vehicles and rooms in a building and most were detained.
Altogether 73 people, including 26 girls, were taken into custody and during search of the rooms police came across five children, four boys and a girl, who had been kept locked in a room in extremely unhygienic conditions and who were in a state of shock.
Police seized 500 packets of contraceptives (condoms) from the premises of the farm house.
On arrival at Rimpu Bagan, the police noticed a three storied building (two floors in basement and one above ground level) with approximately 30 small rooms. This building was suspected to be the place where the minor girl was sexually assaulted.
The team also found many young boys and girls openly drinking on the premises, inside the rooms as well as inside vehicles. Some of them were sitting inside the vehicles without clothes or with very less clothes on.
Later, the whole premise was searched in presence of independent witnesses and 36 vehicles, 47 mobile phones, 168,268 ml liquor, huge quantities of contraceptives (condoms) and other incriminating materials were recovered.
“The main accused namely Bernard N. Marak @ Rimpu was verbally instructed to cooperate with the investigation and surrender himself at Shillong Sadar Police Station immediately. However, he has not cooperated and is evading arrest at the time of issue of this press release. The search operation is continuing,” the police said.
West Garo Hills Superintendent of police Vivekanand Singh Rathore said late in the evening that Marak will be arrested after he failed to surrender to police.
“His surrender period is already over. We had given him enough time to surrender but he refused. He will now be arrested,” said Rathore.
“We are getting a warrant for his arrest from court. We know his whereabouts,” confirmed the SP.
The BJP leader is reportedly on his way out of the state and heading to Delhi to avoid being arrested by the state police.
The police statement said that from the materials recovered at Rimpu Bagan as well as the design of building etc., it appears that the place was being used by Marak and his accomplices as a “brothel” for the purpose of prostitution.
A case (105(07)2022) vide Tura Women PS has been registered u/s 3/4/5/6/7 of Immoral Trafficking (Prevention) Act, 1956.
Since the past few years, there have been multiple complaints from Tura citizens against the activities in the farmhouse but no action was taken against him.
The Tura BJP MDC, who is a former chairman of a disbanded militant group, has had more than 25 criminal cases against him since the early 2000s.
“This person was the self-styled chairman of militant outfit, A.Chik Nationalist Voluntary Council (B), but even after disbandment of the outfit, he has been indulging in criminal activities like extortion from traders of Tura market, criminal intimidation in case of refusal to pay extortion money, arms smuggling, prostitution, illegal sale of liquor, illegal sale of lottery tickets, teer counters, encroachment on others’ property, illegal collection of money for recommending issue of TNT license, etc.,” police said.
The Director General of Police (DGP), LR Bishnoi, said that the location of Marak is yet to be ascertained.
Speaking to the press on Saturday in Shillong, he said that the last location of Marak was somewhere near Guwahati and later his phone was switched off.
“The owner of the resort, Bernard R Marak is not found at his residence or in Shillong. The last location was somewhere near Guwahati and then the mobile phone was switched off. The investigation is going on,” he said.
Replying to a query that Marak has accused the police of being used, Bishnoi refuted the allegation.
“Meghalaya police will go strictly as per law. The recovery itself indicates that something fishy is there,” he said adding that 400 bottles of liquor were seized from the premises when he has no license for that. Besides, the recovery of large number of condoms indicates that the farmhouse was run as a brothel, he said.
Bishnoi said that no warrant was required to conduct the raid as it was in continuation with the POCSO case.
AND THE BUBBLE BURSTS
The Meghalaya BJP has for long been projecting their first-time MDC from Tura seat Bernard N Marak alias Rimpu as a potential winner who could take on Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma in the ensuing 2023 elections.
Marak, who is known to be media-savvy, has always been one-up against authorities spinning tales of harassment and persecution each time the law caught up with him.
On Friday evening, as police teams swooped down on his farmhouse, he was quick to label it as another case of persecution and even blamed the chief minister for the raid claiming he was anticipating defeat at his hands in South Tura constituency.
As expected, Marak was quick to dispatch press releases to media houses claiming victimisation.
But what unfolded following the police raid on his farmhouse located at Edenbari, outside Tura, seems to have burst his public relations bubble as pictures and videos revealed the kind of wild rave parties that were going on inside with the recovery of several hundred condoms, bottles of liquor and daggers among other things.