TURA, Aug 4: A Special Leave Petition (SLP) filed by the former principal secretary, Hewingson A Sangma, in the Supreme Court (SC) has been dismissed after the top Court refused to stay the order of the High Court of Meghalaya, which had allowed the case to be heard under a Special Court in the town of Tura.
Earlier, the Meghalaya High Court had dismissed Hewingson’s petition which challenged the validity of an order issued by the chairperson of Lokayukta seeking the 11 accused former MDCs and officers to be acted on by the Tura Sessions Court.
Social activist Nilbath Sangma was the petitioner in this case.
The SLP that was heard on Friday was later withdrawn by the former GHADC secretary. This now means that the case, which involves many former and current MDCs as well as contractors, apart from Hewingson himself, will be taken up in Tura.
Earlier this week, the Lokayukta charge-sheeted another 12 people including the sitting legislator of Mahendraganj, Sanjay A Sangma, over charges of corruption.
Besides the sitting MLA, The others named in the charge sheet are former GHADC Chief Executive Member Denang T Sangma, former MDCs Augustine R Marak, Brilliant R Sangma, Dipul R Marak, Kurosh M Marak, Winninson Ch Marak, Dolly K Sangma, Bhupen Hajong, Sukaram K Sangma, former GHADC secretary Hewingson A Sangma and contractor Dolrich D Sangma.
The case against them was filed by Kingstone B Sangma, the Meghalaya state working president of Human Rights and Anti-Corruption Youth Power of India. The case relates to the non-completion of project provided as a special grant to the GHADC, amounting to Rs 100.71 crores.
The Lokayukta had filed a chargesheet on May 18 naming former GHADC CEM Boston Marak, 10 MDCs as well as a few contractors after it found them to be involved in a case of corruption involving public funds.
The chargesheet was filed based on a complaint filed by social activist, Nilbath Ch Marak against the accused for withdrawing funds from the Council without any work being done on the ground.
Meanwhile, member of Human Rights and Anti Corruption Youth Power of India, Nilbath has expressed shock over the fact that the security cover provided by the Lokayukta Court over threat to his life was removed on Friday evening by the state police.
“At this juncture, I am extremely scared for my life. I have no idea why they removed the security I was provided as everyone who is related to the case is outside and there could be attempts on my life. They removed the security personnel even without me being there. This is scary and will definitely dissuade people from fighting against corruption in the future,” said Nilbath.
Meanwhile, when contacted on the matter, the Superintendent of Police of East Garo Hills, Siddharth Ambedkar, explained that the removal of Nilbath’s security cover came after an assessment. “There is no threat to his life as per the assessment made by our teams and so his cover has been removed,” said the SP.
Marak, however, stated that he would approach the Court on the matter as his life could be in danger due to threats he is likely to face while fighting the case as it involved extremely powerful people of the state.
The case in Tura will be heard towards the end of August this year.
