BJP leader accused of operating a prostitution ring is granted bail by the Meghalaya High Court.
Bernard N. Marak, a jailed state BJP leader accused of operating a sex business out of his farmhouse in the northeastern state, was granted conditional bail on Saturday by the Meghalaya High Court.
Marak was given bail with the requirements that he help with the inquiry and not flee, tamper with the evidence, or leave the country.
Marak was given bail with the requirements that he help with the inquiry and not flee, tamper with the evidence, or leave the country.
Along with two solvable sureties in the amount of Rs. 50,000, he was also required to provide a personal bond in that amount.
The court decision from Justice W. Diengdoh stated, “The accused, Bernard N. Marak, is now commanded to be released on bail, if not wanted in some other instances, provided the following conditions are fulfilled with…
L K Gracy, Marak’s wife, had submitted the bail application on Friday.
The high court accepted Marak’s ownership of the property, but it questioned whether there was sufficient proof that it had been a brothel.
As the court noted, “there is insufficient evidence from the statement of the witnesses and the materials on record to link the accused person to the alleged offence inasmuch as there is no initial evidence that the place of occurrence has been used as a brothel, nor is there any evidence to prove that prostitution was carried out in the PO.”
Days after police allegedly smashed a sex ring at his private farmhouse, “Rimpu Bagan,” Marak, a former militant leader, was taken into custody in the Uttar Pradesh region of Hapur.
Police had also claimed that they had rescued six minors—four boys and two girls—and had detained 73 people from the property.
At the Tura women’s police station, a case was opened against the BJP Leader under various sections of the Immoral Trafficking (Prevention) Act, 1956.
