FIR names BJP member Wilver Danggo, businessmen Arup Nag, Prabin Panthi Rajesh Barman and others in involvement to extort from Tura traders

TURA, Aug 25: Tura police investigation into the illegal extortion racket in Tura market where a self-styled traders body had allegedly forced shopkeepers to raise the prices of all essential food items and construction materials at the cost of the common man has been found to be illegally using the name of the Meghalaya Chamber of Commerce which has been in existence for well over 37 years.

The Meghalaya Chamber of Commerce body was set up in 1985 and registered under the society’s act in the same year. Its prime focus was to monitor the prices of goods sold in Tura and ensure a balance between traders and customers.

Its previous office bearers included Late Obedstone Marak as the secretary and well known contractor cum businessman Loverson Momin.

While the chamber of commerce became inactive due to the passing away of some of its senior most members such as Prem Ranjan Gupta, it was never dissolved.

The FIR filed by Tura police this week against arrested BJP MDC Bernard Marak’s group mentions that they have been illegally using the letterhead of the original Meghalaya Chamber of Commerce with the Registration No. SR/MCC-298/85 of 1985 to collect huge amounts of money from shopkeepers of the Tura area.

This illegal practice of collecting money has been going on from 11th of July 2021, the police investigation revealed.

“Although an organization with the same name (MCC) already exists and without going through the terms and conditions of its constitution, a meeting was illegally conducted on 11th July 2021 on the behest of Bernard N Marak alias Rimpu and was aided by Wilver Greham M Danggo, Anish M Sangma, Arup Nag, Rajesh Barman, Patcheng T Sangma, Prabin Panthi and others,” the police investigation mentions.

Arup Nag was a government employee who ran aground the MeCOFED unit in Tura and also took over the night bus services of his late brother. He was arrested last month in connection with the transit of narcotics from Shillong to Tura in one of his buses.

Prabin Panthi and brother began with printing press and has since expanded to showrooms that deal with high end sanitary items and tiles.

According to the police FIR, huge amounts of money have been collected by these same persons in the name of membership fee and monthly renewal fees.

During the preliminary enquiry by police, the office bearers of this organisation could not provide any details of the money collected from the month of July 2011 up to January 2022.

They were also unable to provide any document authorizing them to collect this money and they could not also furnish the details of utilization of the money, mentions the police report.

The self-styled president of this organisation had even lodged an FIR on 9th October 2021 at Tura police station with the impression of the round seal of Meghalaya Chamber of Commerce claiming himself to be the president.

‘Hike prices of goods, pay commission to us’

In what can be witnessed as a blatant robbery of the hard earned earnings of the common people of Garo Hills, shopkeepers in Tura markets were allegedly encouraged and directed to raise the prices of all food items and construction materials by this self-styled Meghalaya Chamber of Commerce body headed by the henchmen of arrested BJP MDC Bernard N Marak alias Rimpu.

The extra money generated from this hike was to be given as commission to the chamber of commerce body.

The police FIR lodged this week after completion of its investigation clearly mentions that Bernard’s Meghalaya Chamber of Commerce compelled the shopkeepers of Tura town to hike the prices of items like fruits, vegetables, sweets, snacks, confectionaries etc and the commission from the hiked prices was channelized to the accused individuals in cash and without any paperwork in order to avoid scrutiny by the law enforcement agencies.

Non-tribal businessmen were also threatened to get a clearance certificate for a fee from the arrested BJP MDC before they can get the Trading by Non-Tribal (TNT) license from the GHADC, even though a sitting MDC does not have the power to issue such a licence which is normally done by the Taxation department of GHADC.