After giving up arms, Bernard Marak joined the BJP. The vice-president of the party’s Meghalaya unit, he has now been arrested for operating a brothel at his farmhouse in West Garo Hills
BJP’s Meghalaya vice-president Bernard N Marak, accused of operating a brothel at his farmhouse,was arrested in Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday. Image courtesy: Bernard Rimpu N Marak/Facebook
Days after the police in Meghalaya’s West Garo Hills raided an alleged brothel and rescued six minors, the man who operates it has been arrested – Bernard N Marak. He is the vice-president of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) unit in the northeastern state.
Marak, who is accused of running the brothel at his farmhouse, was on the run since the raid on Saturday and was arrested in Uttar Pradesh’s Hapur district.
West Garo Hills’ District Superintendent of Police Vivekanand Singh told news agency PTI, “Bernard N Marak alias Rimpu has been arrested in Uttar Pradesh. A team is being sent there to bring him to Tura (in Meghalaya).”
The arrest came hours after Meghalaya Police put out a lookout notice for the BJP leader. A Tura court issued a non-bailable warrant against Marak on Monday.
What is the brothel row?
Following a tip-off on Saturday, the Meghalaya Police carried out the raid at Rimpu Bagan, a farmhouse owned by Marak, in West Garo Hills.
Six minors — four boys and two girls — were found locked inside a dingy unhygienic cabin on the property, which has 30 small rooms. The police also found many young men and women without clothes and drinking.
Twenty-seven vehicles, eight two-wheelers, about 400 bottles of liquor, over 500 unused condoms, and crossbows and arrows were seized. Seventy-three people were arrested for their indulgence in “nefarious activities” as evident from the material seized, Singh said after the raid.
All the rescued children were handed over to District Child Protection Officer (DCPO) for safe custody.
How did the matter come to light?
The family of a girl who was sexually assaulted earlier in the year traced her to Rimu Bagan. A case was filed in the matter in February.
“It was ascertained that the minor was sexually assaulted multiple times over one week, and a case was registered under IPC sections 366A (procuration of minor girl), 376 (punishment for rape) and sections of the POCSO Act,” Singh said.
The survivor had reportedly told the court that she and her friend were taken to Rimpu Bagan, where a room was hired and she was assaulted multiple times.
Who is Marak?
Marak, who owns the farmhouse, has been accused of running the trafficking racket.
The vice-president of BJP’s Meghalaya unit and a member of the district council from Tura, Marak is a former militant who took to politics.
The 46-year-old is a son of a forest official and a lecturer. He joined the Achik National Volunteer Council (ANVC), an insurgent group that aimed to carve out a separate state for the Garo tribe called “Achik Land”.
According to the South Asia Terrorism Portal, the proposal for “Achik Land” included clubbing together the Garo areas of Assam and Meghalaya’s West Khasi Hills.
In 2004, the Centre, the state government and ANVC signed a ceasefire agreement. But the insurgent group did not keep its words. In 2011, Marak parted ways with his mentor Dilash Marak and formed a splinter group, ANVC-B. In 2014, both the militant groups laid down arms.
Marak was an independent signatory to the peace agreement between the Centre and the ANVC in 2014, reports The Indian Express.When did he join the BJP?
After the peace talks, Marak joined the BJP. He rose to prominence in 2017 after he quit the party to protest against the Centre’s ban on the sale of cattle for slaughter. While the notification was later withdrawn, after his resignation, many left the Meghalaya unit. Back then, Marak was the chief of the party’s West Garo Hills district unit.
In 2019, he rejoined the BJP and won from Tura in the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council election held in 2021.
“He is a good party worker and was working to expand the party’s base in the Garo hills,” a BJP leader told ThePrint.
Marak, who was creating a place for himself in the party, has now left it red-faced. The brothel row might strain ties between the BJP and the National People’s Party (NPP), the leading partner in the ruling coalition in Meghalaya.
What is the BJP saying?
The Meghalaya unit of the BJP has been tight-lipped so far.
Before his arrest, Marak had rubbished allegations against him and said that he was cooperating with the police. He termed the raid on his farmhouse a “desperate attempt” and “political vendetta” by Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma to “malign his image”.
“The CM is getting desperate as he knows he is losing his South Tura seat to the BJP,” Marak had said in a statement on Saturday.
In another press statement on Sunday, the leader alleged that senior police officials who are “CM’s close men” were given the task to “gun” him down. “My life is in threat from the goons in the police department so, I moved out that night and I avoided their execution plan,” he added.He said that he had sent an email to the Tura SP and Meghalaya DGP stating that he was neither absconding nor evading arrest and would “co-operate with the investigation” once he was “back on safe route”.
With inputs from agencies
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