Bhopal: More than 40 call girls, including a few B-grade actresses from Bollywood were engaged to honey-trap bureaucrats and politicians, including a former Chief Minister and Governor of Madhya Pradesh, by a big blackmailing syndicate in Bhopal.
As of now, 92 high quality video clips, depicting bureaucrats and politicians in a compromising position, have been recovered from two laptops and several mobile phones of five women arrested on charges of a sex-blackmail and extortion racket which has rocked MP, a politically volatile state in central India.
The Special Investigation Team of MP police led by Additional Director General of Police, Sanjeev Shami, is gathering clinching evidence by matching video clips with the location of sites where it was shot by the call girls or by the women running the sex and blackmailing racket.
Sanjeev Shami, a senior IPS officer, was given the charge of investigation in the case while replacing D. Srinivas on Tuesday amid allegation by the BJP National General Secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya that Congress government was selectively targeting BJP leaders in the sex scandal which now requires an independent agency such as the CBI to probe the case.
Sources in the SIT revealed to IANS that kingpin of the sex racket, Shweta Swapnil Jain, arrested by SIT, hired top call girls to honeytrap bureaucrats and politicians holding important offices of the state government.
Some of the ‘target’ who flew to Mumbai or Delhi on official tours were provided models and Bollywood actresses, often on their demand.
During her interrogation Shweta confessed that once a Minister or Secretary were honey-trapped, his favour was sought in procuring lucrative government contracts for the NGO run by Shweta. Sources said Shweta admitted that the NGO run by her husband was obliged with Rs 8 crore contract from the Bhopal Municipal Corporation. Many such contracts running into several crores were secured from various state government departments such as PWD, Housing, Social Welfare and other Government corporations.
Speaking on the involvement of former ministers and bureaucrats in the sex racket, state Congress spokesperson K.K. Mishra said the racket was being operated for years and 80 per cent of politicians involved in the blackmail are of the BJP.
On being asked about the involvement of Congress leaders, Mishra said among the politicians honey-trapped by the syndicate, around 20 per cent Congress functionaries were also hooked by the operators.
As per the provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act, only those government servants( including Ministers) could be charged who have granted out-of-turn contracts or funds from the treasury to the sex-blackmail syndicates. Participation in illicit sex activities does not attract sections of the Corruption Act, though action can be taken under Service Conduct rules. (IANS)
