Not absconding, fear for life, says BJP leader Bernard Marak over brothel charges

GUWAHATI:  Meghalaya BJP vice president Bernard Marak, who has been charged with running a prostitution racket from his farmhouse at Tura in West Garo Hills district, said on Sunday that he is not absconding, but moved out of the state since he fears for his life.

In a video message, Marak alleged that Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma of National People’s Party (NPP) had issued directions to the police to falsely implicate him. He said he was neither absconding nor evading arrest but just trying to stay safe.

He was in Shillong when the police conducted an eight-hour-long raid at his farmhouse on Friday night, and recovered 400 bottles of liquor, and 500 packets of condoms and contraceptive pills. DGP LR Bishnoi said the recovery indicated that the farmhouse was being run as a brothel.

Marak said during the raid, the police asked him to go to a police station in Shillong. “But as I was coming out, two cars approached me. I was apprehensive because I had information that they will try to implicate me and if possible, gun me down. So I had to move from Shillong to Guwahati,” Marak said, adding,

“The charge that I was running a prostitution racket was made up by police. Actually, I am helping underprivileged students to study. I kept 9-10 of them in my farmhouse,” Marak said, stating that the five children “rescued” by the police were sponsored by him. 

Accusing the NPP and Sangma, Marak said, “The charges were aimed at maligning BJP’s image since it is growing here and I was elected to Garo Hills Autonomous District Council from the CM’s constituency.”