Shillong, Aug 1 (PTI) The BJP’s Meghalaya unit has alleged that party workers are being terrorised by the superintendent of police and district magistrate of West Garo Hills and sought their removal.
BJP state vice-president Bernard N Marak was arrested last week on the charge of running a sex racket in his farmhouse in the district.
The party, which is part of the ruling coalition, wrote to Governor Satya Pal Malik seeking the removal of the two senior officials of the district.
Seeking transfer of the district police chief and the administrator, state BJP president Ernest Mawrie claimed in a letter to the governor that the intent of harassing party workers seems laced with ulterior motive coupled with blatant abuse of power .
Claiming that party workers were being harassed and receiving summons from police, Mawrie said in the letter, the status of being a coalition partner or the Opposition shall not influence our stance on corruption. I request your office to intervene and help restore the sense of safety among our party workers.
Meghalaya is witnessing political vendetta, a first of its kind in the state. Terrorising opposition and smaller party workers is nothing but suffocating our very own democratic principles.
The BJP with two MLAs is part of the ruling Meghalaya Democratic Alliance government and the party is also backing the National People’s Party in the executive committee of the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council (GHADC).
Meanwhile, the saffron party has claimed that Marak’s arrest for allegedly running a sex racket in Tura, was a pressure tactic of the NPP as the BJP’s state vice-president had charged Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma and his party, the National People’s Party, of financial irregularities and corruption in the GHADC.
We are not taking this lightly and our karyakartas are demonstrating against the government’s vindictive arrest and harassment against our party workers, he said.
Marak, a former militant leader and an elected member of the GHADC, was arrested from a taxi in Uttar Pradesh’s Hapur district last week after the police, raided his farmhouse and rescued six minors and arrested 73 others.
Twenty-seven vehicles, eight two-wheelers, about 400 bottles of liquor, over 500 unused condoms, and crossbows and arrows were seized during the raid in Tura.
While the BJP has accused the chief minister’s involvement in the raid at the farmhouse and his subsequent arrest, the latter refuted all allegations.
There is no question of me ever giving any kind of order in that manner, the chief minister had told journalists.