HAPUR (UP), July 27 (PTI): The Meghalaya Police took custody of BJP vice-president Bernard N Marak, who is accused of running a sex racket at his farmhouse in the northeastern state, on Wednesday, a day after he was arrested here.
A team from Meghalaya reached the Pilkhua police station here and took the BJP leader back to Tura, superintendent of police (Hapur) Dipak Buker said.
Marak, a former militant leader, had gone missing following a police raid – which started Friday night and ran till Saturday morning – at the farmhouse at Tura in Meghalaya’s West Garo Hills district.
The Meghalaya police said they arrested 73 people from the farmhouse and rescued six minors – four boys and two girls.
The police in Pilkhuwa and the Special Operations Group (SOG) took Marak into custody near a toll plaza at the Ghaziabad border on Tuesday upon learning that a look-out notice was issued against him.
A look-out notice is issued to make sure that a wanted person is not able to leave the country.
A court in Tura had on Monday issued a non-bailable warrant against the BJP leader. The BJP is a part of the state’s ruling Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA), led by chief minister Conrad K Sangma of the NPP.
Marak, a militant-turned-politician, has claimed he was innocent and alleged he is the target of political vendetta by the chief minister and fears for his life. The state BJP also backed his claim.
There were speculations that in the assembly elections next year, the saffron party would field Marak against Sangma. The Meghalaya chief minister told reporters that he did not issue any order to put the BJP vice-president behind the bars.
Marak is facing charges under various sections of the IPC and the Immoral Trafficking (Prevention) Act, 1956. He has more than 25 criminal cases registered against him since the early 2000s across the northeastern state.
Marak was the chairman of the now-disbanded armed rebel group ANVC(B), a breakaway faction of the Achik National Volunteer Council, before he joined the BJP and won the tribal council elections from Tura.
