TURA: Meghalaya Pradesh Youth Congress president Richard Mrong Marak who was the brainchild behind the forced ban on The Shillong Times daily in Tura and had led a gang of goons to threaten paper hawkers and subscribers of the daily has been arrested by Tura police along with two other party members on Monday.
The police action came about after The Shillong Times management and staff filed two separate FIRs with Tura police and began the process of moving the High Court against the Youth Congress which not only threatened the staff and paper agents but also blocked the circulation and tore copies of the daily in Tura on Saturday morning.
Youth Congress president Richard Marak was slapped with summons by the Tura police and was arrested on arrival at the station along with two of his cronies identified as Allan Sylvestar R Marak and Tangseng Marak, both active Congress members of the youth wing.
All three self-styled political leaders were later released on bail.
The Youth Congress members led by Richard Marak had threatened paper agents and hawkers from selling The Shillong Times alleging that the management was not giving up to date news to the readers.
On Saturday morning they prevented the newspaper circulation from being distributed to the readers and even tore the covers of the copies which were being dispatched to different parts of Garo Hills.
Following the unruly incidents the staff and management filed two police reports (FIR) at Tura police station and have also decided to move the high court against the Youth Congress.
The Shillong Times has decided to raise the issue of infringement of democratic rights of a citizen under Article 19 of the Constitution of India in the court.
Following the filing of police complaints (FIRs) by the journalists from the daily, the accused Congress workers tried to wriggle out of the situation by filing a counter FIR in which they claimed that they were allegedly threatened by the staff of The Shillong Times.
