Waiter, woman held in incident involving minor
SHILLONG: After the District Council poll debacle, Home Minister HDR Lyngdoh and his son Nathaniel Osbert Rymmai are in trouble after their guest house at Rilbong was raided by police and a waiter was arrested on Friday for a case related to trafficking of a minor girl aged 14 allegedly for prostitution.
Police took action against the waiter following the arrest of another woman identified as Mamuni Parveen (37) from Demthring for using the girl, who is working as a maid in her house, for prostitution in guest houses and hotels in parts of the city.
The woman and the waiter were remanded to five-day police custody after they were arrested under Section 5 of the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act.
The Tripuri girl, originally hailing from East Khasi Hills border, was spotted on December 15 night at Marvelenes Inn in Rilbong owned by the family of HDR Lyngdoh.
The staff at the guest house confirmed that the waiter Usha Deb Barman who is known to the girl was arrested. The girl was brought to the guest house twice.
According to the staff of the guest house, the Home Minister and his son, who was the candidate from Sohiong, came along with counting agents from Sohiong at the guest house at 9.30 pm on December 15 and they left only at 11.30 pm. There were as many as 16 counting agents.
The staff said that when the police brought the girl again to the guest on Friday, she revealed the name of the waiter who took her to the vacant executive room number 302 of the guest house for the clients. However, no rooms were booked by the counting agents on December 15.
Curiously, the CCTV of the guest house has not been functioning since November 29 and it was not repaired. The staff said that the guest house is registered in the name of HDR Lyngdoh’s son.
According to the FIR lodged by the girl, she has been staying with the arrested woman for almost one year. The FIR revealed that the minor girl was exploited by the woman in her house besides sending her to guest houses and hotels.
Neither the Home Minister nor his son was available for comments.
When contacted, the wife of the HDR Lyngdoh confirmed that her son is the proprietor of the guest house. According to the wife, she has no idea as to what her manager was doing as she had not visited the guest house since last one month. When contacted, SP (City) Vivek Syiem said the girl hailing from Ichamati, East Khasi Hills, was brought in February this year by Parveen.
On December 15, she was sent to the Rilbong guest house, but she managed to escape from there and went to Laban police station for help. On the evening of December 16, police arrested Parveen and based on her confession, the waiter was arrested. According to Parveen, the waiter had acted as a dalal.
“Both the persons who were arrested under Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act were placed under police custody for five days,” Syiem said.
He added that the police are looking into the depth of the sex racket and will question all persons involved.
Asked whether there will be any pressure from the Home Minister regarding the case, Syiem asserted, “We do not have any pressure from any quarters. We will carry forward the case from here.”