Sex racket: Chargesheet against 9 accused

Srinagar, June 24: The CBI today filed a chargesheet against nine accused, including former Jammu and Kashmir Additional Advocate General (AAG) Anil Sethi and Deputy Inspector General (DIG) BSF K S Padhi, in the sex racket case before the Chief Judicial Magistrate here.

The CJM taking cognizance of the challan fixed July 7 as the next date of hearing.

The challan was produced against the former state AAG , the DIG BSF, Deputy Superintendent of Police Mohammad Ashraf Mir, Shabir kala, Shabir Langoo, kingpin Sabeena, her husband Abdul Hamid, Mehraj Pir and Masood Hussain.

The CBI has not filed any challan against two former ministers Ghulam Ahmad Mir and Raman Mattoo. Mir is a Congress legislator from Dooru while Mattoo is an Indpendent legislator from Habba Kadal. Challan against them will be filed seperately, CBI sources said. The court also extended the CBI remand of Anil Sethi, who was produced in the court, till July seven.

The CJM has referred the bail applications of two former Jammu and Kashmir ministers, former Additional Advocate General and Deputy Inspector of General (DIG) BSF to Divisional Bench and fixed July 1 as the next date of hearing.

Mir was arrested from Delhi while Mattoo was taken into custody from his Gupkar house here. However, the DIG BSF surrendered before the CBI here while Sethi, who was evading arrest since a proclamation notice was issued against him on June 14 by CJM following a request by the CBI, also surrendered in a local court at Jammu recently.

The sex racket case was handed over to the CBI by Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad on May one following allegations that politicians, bureaucrats besides senior police and paramilitary officials were involved in the scandal.

Massive demonstrations erupted in the entire Kashmir valley when the scandal had surfaced, angry protestors brought down the houses of alleged kingpin of the racket, Sabeena, at Habba Kadal in the old city on June 5.

The Jammu and Kashmir High Court after taking suo motu cognizance of the case also admitted a public interest litigation filed by the Kashmir Bar Association on May 12. Since then the High Court is hearing the sex racket case and monitoring the investigations into the scandal by the CBI. The CBI has arrested 13 people in the case including K S Padhi, a Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Border Security Force (BSF), and Mohammad Ashraf Mir, a Deputy Superintendent of Jammu and Kashmir Police, besides the two former Ministers.

The High Court taking serously the allegations that some highly-placed people were hindering the investigations into the sex racket case, directed the CBI to seek their immediate transfer from their present positions.

The court has also once again pulled up the CBI for taking no action against the hotels and guest houses allegedly used for carrying out flesh trade and asked the agency to speed up probe in against them Passing orders after hearing the arguments from both the sides yesterday afternoon, a division bench, comprising Justice Bashir Ahmed Kirmani and Justice Hakim Imtiyaz Hussain, listed the case for June 30 and asked the CBI to submit a status report indicating the progress of the investigation on June 26 and 28.

The court said that in the interest of investigation, they (CBI) may also seek shifting of such people by the competent authority so that could not influence the process of investigation or tamper with the evidence.

UNI