From Our Bureau
NEW DELHI: The Congress on Saturday sought an inquiry into a sex racket of the BJP’s Meghalaya vice-president Bernard Marak exposed by police with rescue of 73 persons, including 23 women and five children, in a raid on his 30-room farm house on the outskirts of Tura in West Garo Hills district.
It said West Garo Hills SP Vivekananda Singh Rathore, who led the raid on the farm house, said Marak was linked with a crime registered in February on two minor girls were taken to the farm house and sexually assaulted multiple times over one week.
Its spokesman Ajoy Kumar told a press conference here on Saturday that the Meghalaya Police had found explosives and traditional arms during the raid, involving 35 gelatine sticks, 100 detonators, 4 crossbows and 15 arrows. Also seized were 400 bottles of liquor and over 500 unued packets of contraceptives.
He said Marak had absconded, but he was apprehended from Hapur in Uttar Pradesh and formally arrested at Tura on Tuesday. The charges were filed under POCSO after one of the minor girls rescued was medically examined and found to be sexually assaulted many times.
Dr Ajoy Kumar said Bernard Marak has a history of charges levelled against him in 25 criminal cases. He was the self-styled chairman of now disbanded militant and insurgent outfit Achik National Volunteer Council (ANVC-B) but he continues to indulge in the criminal activities like extortion from traders, arms smuggling, illegal sale of liquor and lottery tickets, encroachment of others’ properties and arms smuggling.
“But the BJP has termed the move as part of a political vendetta by the National Peoples’ Party-led government in the state of which the saffron party is a minor partner,” the Congress spokesman said.
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