Sex CD case: Chhattisgarh Congress chief Bhupesh Baghel sent to jail

RAIPUR: In a significant development in poll-bound Chhattisgarh, state Congress president Bhupesh Baghel has been remanded to judicial custody for 14 days by a special CBI court on Monday after the central investigating agency filed charge-sheet against him and others in connection with a case of circulation of a “fake” sex CD that purportedly showed a senior minister in a compromising position in October last year.
CBI, which has been probing the sex CD case for almost last one year, presented its charge-sheet in the court of special CBI judge Sumit Kapoor, who remanded the state Congress chief to 14 days judicial custody till October eight. The court, however, granted bail to journalist Vinod Verma and also removed the charges of extortion against him. Another accused Vijay Bhatiya, a businessman, has also been granted bail.
Besides state Congress Chief Bhupesh Baghel, former BBC journalist Vinod Verma, businessman Vijay Bhatiya and Vijay Pandya have been arrayed as accused. Besides, a local businessman Rinku Khanuja, whose body was found hanging after he was questioned by the CBI, has also been listed as an accused.
Refusing to engage a lawyer to defend him, PCC chief Bhupesh Baghel said “am innocent. Government is implicating me after black flag demonstration. People will reply to this case”. Baghel’s remark was in reference to Congress demonstration during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Chhattisgarh on September 22, protesting against police brutality inside the Congress Bhawan at Bilaspur.

CBI had registered two FIRs, including one naming Chhattisgarh Pradesh Congress Committee president Bhupesh Baghel, and had begun probe in December last year into the sex CD case—which minister Rajesh Munat and ruling party leaders alleged was fabricated and circulated with the motive to defame the minister as well as the BJP government in power.

One FIR was against unknown persons on the charges of extortion and intimidation and another under the Information Technology (IT) Act, naming state Congress president Bhupesh Baghel and journalist Vinod Verma, who was arrested earlier by the state police. The first FIR against unknown persons is on the basis of a complaint lodged by one Prakash Bajaj, who claimed that an unknown person had called him up on a landline, threatening to expose a CD of his “Aaka” if they don’t pay up.

Another FIR is under 67(A) of the IT Act is on the basis of a complaint lodged by PWD minister Rajesh Munat in which he had named Baghel and journalist Vinod Verma. In October last year, a state police swooped down on journalist Vinod Verma’s house in Ghaziabad residence, picked him up—all with him ten hours after Prakash Bajaj lodged an FIR naming unknown persons in Raipur.
Subsequently, the state government handed over the case to the CBI with chief minister Raman Singh proclaiming publicly that it was necessary to bring an end to the political culture of using sex CDs for mud-slinging and maligning in the state. But, as CBI probe advanced, names of several people, including local businessmen—who were close to ruling BJP also cropped up—at different states.

One businessman Rinku Khanuja, who was questioned by the CBI for a couple of days, was found hanging in his shop. While the police concluded on the same day that Khanuja had committed suicide, his family members and opposition Congress alleged that it was a case of murder and Rinku Khanuja had no reason to commit suicide. Opposition also hired a professional private forensic expert, who after visiting the site, also expressed doubts on suicide theory. Subsequently, opposition Congress raised a volley of questions about the CBI probe, demanding that details of all those who were questioned must be made public.
Meanwhile, former BBC journalist Vinod Verma, who was arrested by the state police in October last year, got bail from a local court in December last year after investigators failed to file a charge-sheet within the mandatory period of 60 days.
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