SHILLONG, July 26: The “elusive” state BJP vice president and Tura MDC Bernard N Marak was finally arrested in Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday.
He was untraceable ever since the police had conducted a raid at his farmhouse at Edenbari near Tura on July 22.
The BJP leader fell in the UP police net just hours after the Meghalaya police had on Tuesday issued a country-wide lookout notice against him and the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate, Tura issued a non-bailable arrest warrant.
“He was arrested while he was in a taxi in Hapur district of Uttar Pradesh,” West Garo Hills Superintendent of Police Vivekanand Singh Rathore said.
The police said Marak was asked to surrender before the Sadar police station in Shillong on the night of the raid but he fled to Guwahati and went into hiding. By the time the police learnt about his whereabouts, he had reached Delhi after travelling by a late evening flight on Sunday.
“He will be produced before a local court in Hapur and brought to Tura on police remand for investigation,” Rathore said, adding that a team of Meghalaya police is being sent to Hapur to bring him.
Agencies quoted Hapur Superintendent of Police Deepak Bhuker as saying that Marak will be taken to Tura. “A police team from Meghalaya is coming here. He will be handed over to the Meghalaya police,” Bhuker said.
Another senior police officer in Hapur said the district’s Pilkhuwa police and Special Operations Group (SOG) took Marak into custody near a toll plaza on the Ghaziabad border upon learning that a lookout notice was issued against him.
Director-General of Police Lajja Ram Bishnoi asserted that police will prepare a watertight case against Marak and will try to file the charge sheet at the earliest.
He said police will proceed strictly as per law in the investigation of the case even as he added that sufficient evidence have been collected.
Police will now collect details about ownership of the property and other details like whether necessary permission was taken for sale of liquor on the premises, the DGP added.
Earlier, the police said they had recovered 400 bottles of liquor, 500 packets of unused condoms and contraceptive tablets etc during the near eight-hour-long raid at the farmhouse. Altogether 73 people were also arrested from the private property.
The state BJP had alleged Marak was “framed” and demanded that the charges against him are dropped. Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma denied the allegation that the raid was politically-motivated.
He said actions were taken based on evidence and as per the law. He denied his interference in the operation.
“When I was informed of the operation, I had told them whatever is being done should be based on law,” Sangma said even as he rubbished the charge of giving any order to gun down the BJP leader.
Asking people not to link the incident to upcoming Assembly elections, he said the police had raided the property based on a large number of complaints besides other incidents which allegedly took place on the premises. He said the evidence available suggests something fishy was going on there.
“I never had any intention to influence the case,” the CM said. He said Marak may try to divert attention but the evidence against him is strong.
“These kinds of things just can’t go on,” Sangma said, adding that the activities at the farmhouse were being monitored by the police for a long time.
Stating that Marak’s arrest will not pose any threat to his government, he expressed optimism that the relationship between the NPP and the BJP will not be strained by this incident. The BJP leaders will understand the situation given the evidence, he said.
On Monday, Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong had stated that the charges against Marak would not be withdrawn.
“We cannot withdraw the charges just because the accused is a BJP vice president. The law is the same for everyone,” he had told reporters.
He said the law would take its course whether or not there was pressure from the BJP leadership to withdraw the charges.
The state BJP has stood firmly by its beleaguered MDC. Party state president Ernest Mawrie had dubbed the police action as “political vendetta”, implicating Sangma and the NPP. (With PTI input)
