With 18 arrests till date sex racket case turns out to be most sensational
SHILLONG: Police are on the lookout for four more persons who had raped the 14-year-old girl following the sex racket case.
With the arrest of as many as 18 people, including Mawhati legislator Julius Dorphang, the case is turning out to be the most sensational in the recent history of Meghalaya.
The girl, who was working at the residence of trafficker Mamoni Parveen at Demthring, was used in the sex racket for almost a year, but the incident surfaced only on December 16 last when she reported the matter to the police after she was raped for the last time at Marvelene’s Inn, Rilbong, run by the family of Home Minister HDR Lyngdoh.
There were several FIRs filed mostly at Laban, Madanrting, Laitumkhrah and Umiam police stations in connection with the crime, and out of these, one charge sheet was filed in connection with the Laitumkhrah case while others are awaited.
Besides the 18 who are in custody, those who are yet to be arrested include one Prof. Roy from an institute in Shillong, an elderly businessman from Borsora who raped the girl in a hotel at Police Bazar, an army officer who is the friend of one Sagar who is known to the trafficker Mamoni Parveen, and another elderly person who exploited the minor girl at a guest house with a swimming pool somewhere in Ri Bhoi.
Though the initial FIR was filed at Laban police station, the name of the Mawhati legislator surfaced during the victim’s interaction with CSWO president
Agnes Kharshiing at a shelter home.
Among the names of those who raped her, the victim had mentioned about ‘Julius the Minister’.
Later, Kharshiing showed the photograph of Dorphang to the girl leading to confirmation following which the Chairperson of Meghalaya State Commission for Protection of Child Rights, Meena Kharkongor, filed an FIR against the legislator on December 24.
As far as the Home Minister is concerned, though there is public pressure for him to step down since his family’s Inn is embroiled in the sex racket case, the Congress party and Chief Minister Mukul Sangma have defended him.
