SHILLONG: Sitting MLA from South Shillong constituency Sanbor Shullai has denied the allegation that he had outraged the modesty of a woman at his residence besides driving away job aspirants who had come from different parts of the country for an army recruitment rally, from a guest house here.
Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, Shullai said that some people were trying to malign him since elections were approaching.
The MLA said that on the evening of August 4, the family of Haviva Passah, the lessee of the Stay Four Seasons Guest House, came to his house and started shouting.
He claimed that Haviva was carrying a bag in a very suspicious way which forced him to call his personal security officer even as he asked other people who were present there not to touch the woman.
He also said his staff and some visitors were present at that time and that there was no question of molesting her.
“When I informed the police over phone, she told me that she would also go to the police to give a false statement against me,” Shullai said.
“How do I molest her when she trespassed into my residence,” the legislator said, while adding that she was being instigated by someone to file the FIR or else she would not have filed the FIR after 24 hours of the incident.
Haviva had filed an FIR against Shullai for outraging her modesty and other charges on Saturday following which the latter filed a counter FIR on the same day pointing out that she along with two others had forcibly entered his residential office with a motive to tarnish his image.
Her brother Mickey was at the guest house when a group of candidates coming to attend army recruitment rally approached him requesting for a night stay.
She alleged that things took a turn for the worse when Shullai arrived and drove away the candidates and guests from the guest house situated above the Community Hall in Kench’s Trace. He even snatched the lease agreement documents signed between her and Shullai from her brother’s hand.
Shullai further said that even before the 2013 Assembly elections, he was accused of misusing the sacred flag of Seng Khasi but the court dismissed that case.
It was on August 2 when job aspirants in thousands descended in the MLA’s constituency to appear for the rally.
Shullai said he saw that at least 20 boys who came from outside were kept in each room of the guest house and each of them were charged Rs 500 for the accommodation.
“I asked Mickey Passah (the brother of Haviva, the lessee of the guest house) why you took money from these youths who are very poor and have come here for recruitment and in fact we could have paid the money for them from our side, Shullai said, adding that he had even asked Passah to return their money.
“I reached there and told the guest house owner to return the money which he had charged from the youth and that I will manage our committee hall and shops’ verandahs for their accommodation,” Shullai said.
According to Shullai, he later arranged accommodation for these youths in a community hall and many of them were provided shelter in sheds of vendors and other places.
Shullai said he intervened into the matter after getting complaints from several residents about the flooding of the youths and he wanted to ensure there was no law and order problem in the area.
“It was my duty to ensure that everything was normal there and if anything would have happened there, then I, police and the government would have been blamed,” Shullai told reporters.
He said he had even called up the officer-in charge of Laban police station to take up the matter with GOC 101 Area to accommodate the youths inside the Army premises but they expressed their inability to allow them inside the premises.
Shullai said two months back Mickey was arrested by the police after a tourist agent filed an FIR against him since he had taken an advance payment of Rs 30,000 from an Assam-based agent for providing rooms to the tourists. But the agent found that the rooms had already been occupied when he reached the guest house.
Shullai also alleged that the mother of Haviva, D. Passah, was involved in the assault of Angelbeth (a transgender), a couple of years back, though she denied her involvement.
According to him, the building where the guest house is located at Bishnupur belongs to the Raid Laban Sports, Social & Cultural Organization (RLSSCO) which is being headed by him as the president.
Earlier, the South Shillong legislator said that D. Passah and her family were in fact diehard supporters of Sounder Cajee, who was his opponent in the 2013 Assembly elections.
He however said they came to his fold after meeting them in one of the funerals after the elections when the mother approached him for helping her unemployed son (Mickey).
