SHILLONG: A day after East Garo Hills Police filed a charge sheet against him, activist Tennydard Marak alleged that it was an act of ‘political conspiracy’ to create hurdles in his lone battle in the larger interest of the indigenous tribal people of Meghalaya and their identity issue against the persons procuring bogus Scheduled Tribe certificates wrongly applying fraudulent means and at the same time manipulating the truth and enjoying the special privileges reserved for the genuine tribes of Meghalaya.
In a statement issued to the media on Tuesday, Marak said that the report filed by the investigation officer before the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Williamnagar, and finally the charge sheet submitted by the police is nothing but a concocted criminal conspiracy framed against him with an attempt to entangle him in a case with which he had no involved at all.
Marak observed that Jonathon N Sangma decided to file an FIR on February 16, 2013 with allegations of hatching conspiracy against him to influence the voters in the last Assembly election held on February 23 whereas he should have approached the appropriate authority which is the Election Commission based on the provisions of Article 329(b) of the Constitution of India and as per 10 (1) (b) of the Representation of the Peoples Act, 1951 which have provisions for declaring the elections null and void if there is any malpractice by the candidates.
“Instead of approaching the appropriate authority for seeking justice and remedial measures, Jonathon N Sangma, with ulterior motive, filed the alleged FIR for reasons best known to him,” Marak said.
Moreover, police should also have initiated action immediately after the receipt of the FIR and could have brought such a serious allegation to the notice of the Chief Election Commissioner, Marak said, adding that Jonathan had enough time to stop the election process, but nothing of that sort was done either by him or by the police.