Four women give statement before Magistrate
SHILLONG: After nine sex workers recently made revelations about their frequent visits to Marvelene’s Inn run by the family of Home Minister HDR Lyngdoh, four more women recorded their statements before the magistrate as part of the pending case under Laban police station involving the guest house.
The management of Marvelene’s Inn has been claiming ignorance of what has been happening at the Inn.
A 25-year-old woman in her statement before the Judicial Magistrate First Class on February 22 this year said it was in 2016 that she and another woman, who introduced her to a client known as Khongwar, went to Marvelene’s Inn.
Since Khongwar was related to her, she did not sit with him. She also found that there were two more girls already present in the room.
She said the manager of the Inn, Edmund (currently under judicial custody) asked for her phone number.
The next day, she took her friend to Marvelene’s Inn to meet client Khongwar and his friend Karan.
The woman said the next day, around 10 pm, Edmund asked her to come to the Inn, but she refused.
The woman said on several occasions, she had gone to the Inn and met clients from outside the State.
Another 29-year-old woman, a sex worker, who recorded her statement on February 27 before the magistrate, said she went with Mamoni Parveen, the prime accused in the trafficking case of a 14-year-old girl, to Marvelene’s Inn. “I had gone to Marvelene’s Inn many times. I went there alone many times and twice with my friends,” she said.
Another sex worker (24), who was in the ‘profession’ for three years, in her statement on March 2 said she met a friend at Police Bazar who introduced her to an old woman at Nongrah.
The old woman took the duo to Marvelene’s Inn in a taxi and the clients were two non-tribals. The woman said that though she does not know the name of the manager of the Inn, she can recognise him if she saw him again.
“We went inside the room of the two non-tribal clients and they told us to have something, but we replied that we are in a hurry and we have to go. The clients thought that we were going to stay. Though my friend wanted to stay, I told them that I will not stay overnight since I left my son alone,” the woman said.
According to her, the clients gave Rs 4,000 each to the duo and insisted that since they had taken money they should stay back.
“I started crying and said that I will not stay. If he wants his money back, he can take it,” the woman said.
Her friend told her not to cry.
“The man had pity on me and he sent me away. I returned the money to the client, but he did not accept,” the woman said, adding that while coming out, the man at the reception saw her.
The fourth woman (29) said she needed money urgently and since she was a sex worker at that time, she went to Marvelene’s Inn.
“I asked for help from a friend and she gave the phone number of Usha Deb (currently under judicial custody). I phoned him and went to meet him at Marvelene’s Inn and Usha took me to the room of Prem,” the woman said, adding for the second time too she had gone to Marvelene’s Inn.
Earlier, the confessions of nine sex workers had revealed that Marvelene’s Inn had become the safest and most frequented place by sex workers.