BHOPAL: Senior Congress MLA Lakshman Singh, the younger brother of ex-CM Digvijaya Singh, on Sunday said that those demanding CBI probe should wait for the outcome of the SIT investigations into the recently busted, high-profile honey-trap racket in Indore and Bhopal.
Leader of Opposition and senior BJP leader Gopal Bhargava had recently demanded a CBI probe into the racket since it was spread in other states outside Madhya Pradesh.
“Such things have been happening since ancient times. Using women to attain power isn’t new. Even the Mahabharata happened due to a woman. But such things are morally wrong, particularly when they are being used to attain contracts and government works. An SIT has already been constituted to probe the matter. Let the SIT probe first conclude. If the opposition is still unsatisfied with it, then the question of CBI probe will arise,” Singh told journalists in Indore on Sunday.
Meanwhile, the SIT probing the high-profile racket continues to grill the five arrested women about their contacts and the money and property earned.
According to police sources, spy cameras in lipsticks and goggles, along with the mundane mobile phone, were used by the accused for filming their victims.
The around 1,000 videos seized from the phones, laptops and other devices of the arrested women are also being forensically examined to ascertain their authenticity.
These also contain compromising videos of powerful businessmen, politicians, bureaucrats and senior cops.
Meanwhile, the e-mail ID info.sit@mppolice.gov.in. created by the SIT, a few days back, for receiving information from commoners about the case has been flooded with over 100 mails till date.
The Racket
On September 18 night, five women were arrested by Indore police for honey-trapping a government officer in Indore and then blackmailing him.
During their interrogation, a much larger racket, active for the last 8-19 years, was uncovered.
The women, with links to powerful politicians in MP, used photos, videos and audios and chats of intimacy with rich and influential men to extort money as well as get contracts and work orders for NGOs run by them.
They also used influences to get plum contracts/work orders, for select companies who paid them a commission and even influenced govt postings and transfers.
Their influence was in Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Delhi. One of the women had close contacts with senior BJP leaders, including four to five ex-MP ministers and ex-governor.
Ministers’ remarks leave MP Congress government red-faced
The Kamal Nath-led Congress government has suffered fresh embarrassment from its loud-mouthed ministers.
While Women and Child Development (WCD) minister Imarti Devi said suspending doctors instead of transferring them can save money, the minister for higher education, Jeetu Patwari, stated that all the revenue department staff were taking bribes.