Shillong: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state vice president and Tura MDC Bernard N Marak was granted conditional bail by the Meghalaya High Court on October 1.
Marak was arrested earlier for allegedly running a brothel at his private farmhouse in West Garo Hills District.
The bail order by Justice W Diengdoh read, “…this application is allowed, the accused person, Bernard N Marak is hereby directed to be released on bail, if not wanted in some other cases, provided the following conditions are complied with: That he shall not abscond or tamper with the evidence; That he shall not leave the jurisdiction of India without the prior permission of the I/O or the Court; That he shall cooperate with the investigation as and when required; and That he shall furnish a personal bond of Rs 50,000 along with two solvent sureties of like amount to the satisfaction of the competent court.”
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Bernard Marak was arrested by the Uttar Pradesh police on July 26.
He was accused of running a prostitution racket at his farmhouse near Tura in the West Garo Hills district of Meghalaya.
The Meghalaya police made this claim following a raid on July 22 at Rimpu Bagan farmhouse of Meghalaya BJP vice president Bernard Marak.
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A total of 73 people, including 24 girls, were taken into custody by the Meghalaya police following the raid.
The police also rescued five children – four boys and a girl – who were kept under lock and key in unhygienic conditions.
Notably, Bernard Marak was the former chairman of a disbanded militant group and had more than 25 criminal cases against him since the early 2000s.