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Srinagar, May 5 (UNI) A spokesperson for the Jammu and Kashmir government today categorically denied that Congress Member of Parliament (MP) Madan Lal Sharma had approached Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi to save any leader allegedly involved in the Srinagar sex scandal.

Reacting to the statement purportedly made by Mr Sharma, the spokesman said the suggestion was utterly baseless, false and without any foundation.

He said there was no question of the MP having approached the Chief Minister or the UPA Chairperson on this issue or the government trying to protect any accused in the scandal.

The spokesperson said the government wanted a fair probe into the scandal and accordingly handed it over to the country's premier investigating agency, the CBI.

He said if the accused were intended to be officially protected then the state government would have carried out the investigations on its own and not referred the case to the CBI.

He described as most unfortunate and reprehensible efforts to drag the names of the UPA Chairperson and the Chief Minister into the controversy.

The spokesperson recalled that the case of the Srinagar sex scandal was pending before the High Courts of Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab and Haryana, adding that the matter being sub-judice, making statements on it could amount to contempt of the honourable courts.

UNI BAS YSS AM RK1605