Rymbai lawyer faces PAC ire for questioning probe

SHILLONG: The Public Action Committee (PAC) has criticised the lawyer of Stanlywiss Rymbai, who was recently arrested in connection with a multi-crore land scam, for doubting the committee’s findings in the Ri Bhoi forest land scam.
PAC chairman Paul Lyngdoh said on Wednesday the committee was not answerable to an individual but to the State Legislature and advised against making provocative statements.
Rymbai’s lawyer V.G.K Kynta had questioned the former MLA’s arrest in a case that was registered four years ago. He had also doubted the stand of the Soil and Water Conservation Department saying it did not come forward to claim the land despite the PAC’s claim that it was under the department’s possession. Kynta had asserted that the land belonged to Umsawkhwan village.    On Wednesday, Lyngdoh pointed out that the land scam was not the only case that PAC was dealing with and had looked into the problem of water supply by Greater Shillong Water Supply Scheme leading to improvement of the situation.
“After the intervention of PAC, the work for the abattoir in Jowai has picked up pace and is nearing completion,” he said. He added that the committee was not sitting idle and it would not be bogged down by any individual trying to tarnish its image.
The PAC chairman asserted that the committee would not interfere with police investigation into the land scam and will take the matter to its logical end as the people of the State “have the right to know the entire issue of the forest land”.
The land in question is still not under the possession of the State Government even after the emergency clause of the land acquisition was invoked.
The CID recently arrested former Umroi MLA Rymbai in connection with the multi-crore land scam in Meghalaya’s Ri Bhoi district and later he was released on bail.
Rymbai, who claimed to have the authorisation from Mawpalai village, received Rs 8 crore from the government for acquisition of land in the village, which was already acquired and under the possession of the Soil and Water Conservation Department.
The case first surfaced in the 2012 CAG report. The State Government later filed a money suit in Nongpoh to recover the amount paid to Rymbai.