Tura, July 20: Sitting MLA from Rangsakona, Subir R Marak, is in the eye of a storm over an alleged assault of a night watchman of the MBOSE guest house in Shillong, after videos of the incident went viral.
The incident reportedly took place on July 16th at 2 O’Clock in the morning when the NPP legislator arrived to drop off his guests who had “dinner” at his residence. A delay in opening of the gates by the night watchman apparently angered the MLA who is alleged to have been inebriated.
CCTV footage from the security cameras show the legislator speaking to the watchman before landing a slap on the MBOSE employee. The MLA is then taken aside by one of his accomplices to try and pacify him. But the legislator doesn’t appear to be done with the slap as he continues ranting away for several minutes before a man with some authority arrives on a scooty to pacify things, only to become the next victim of the legislator’s verbal abuse.
With the tide turned against him, the Rangsakona MLA tried to justify the incident claiming that he had to wait for around half an hour outside as no one came to open the gate to allow his guests to retire to their allotted rooms.
In a statement Subir Marak claimed that he had booked the guest house to accommodate a teachers’ delegation from Garo Hills who had come to meet with the Education Minister.
“I had invited them for dinner to my residence and after dinner I personally came to drop them to the guest house. Reached at 2 AM and waited there for half an hour blowing a siren and horn and my PSO climbed over the wall to wake the Chowkidar,” claims the legislator, not realizing that 2 AM is not dinner time but way past bedtime.
Claiming to have been engaged in a verbal argument, the MLA stated, “the chawkidar’s wife was talking very rudely so I had to give a mild slap which I should not have done being a public representative. It happened in the heat of the moment and I had asked for an apology to the chowkidar,” says Subir Marak, although the video doesn’t show the presence of the watchman’s wife.
Angered by the release of the video, the MLA has accused the watchman of deliberately giving it out despite his tendering of an apology. “This is unfair and a breach of privilege of an elected member,” stated the Rangsakona MLA.
