Representational imageShillong: Meghalaya MLA Julius K Dorphang, accused of raping a 14-year-old girl, was arrested in Guwahati Saturday.
He was arrested a day after the police issued a lookout notice against Dorphang who was wanted in a sex racket involving a minor girl.
The police had requested their counterparts in neighboring states to share information as a manhunt has begun to nab the legislator who supports the ruling Congress.
"We have issued a look out notice and we have also conducted raids in many places frequented by the man," SP city Vivek Syiem had told PTI.
A joint raid was conducted Thursday by the state police along with Assam police in Hatigaon area where the legislator frequented, but they did not find him there, a police officer who was part of the raid had said.
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Dorphang, who previously founded a militant organization and surrendered in 2007, went into hiding after the police booked him under section 366 (A) of the IPC and registered a case with section 3(a)/4 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and under section 5 of the Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act.
The sex racket came to light after an employee of a guest house owned by senior Congress leader and state home minister H D R Lyngdoh's son was arrested for forcing the victim into prostitution last month.
The victim was rescued from near the guest house and brought to the police station where she named all those involved in the racket. Five of the eight people, including four women named in separate FIRs, have been arrested till date.
On January 4, a local court issued a non-bailable arrest warrant against Dorphang, following which the man hunt began.
Meanwhile, women activists here have demanded that the chief minister drop Lyngdoh from his cabinet to allow a free and fair trial.
