Hearing on sex racket case adjourned

Srinagar, June 30 (UNI) The hearing on the sex racket case in the Jammu and Kashmir High Court was adjourned today, as one of the two judges of the division bench, Justice Hakim Imtiyaz Hussain, was out of the town and hence not present in the court.

No new date of hearing has been fixed as yet.

The CBI, which is investigating the scandal, twice in three days submitted the status reports to the High Court indicating the progress made in the investigations into the sex racket case.

The report was submitted in a sealed cover to a division bench, comprising Justice Bashir Ahmed Kirmani and Justice Hakim Imtiyaz Hussain, which is monitoring the sex racket case, by Assistant Solicitor General of India and CBI counsel Shabir A Naik.

The CBI had earlier submitted a status report to the bench on June 26. The report carried details of the progress made in the investigations into the case after June 26.

It also has the statements of accused and details of the questioning of several people by the CBI.

The statements of those arrested by the CBI so far in connection with the case, including former Jammu and Kashmir ministers and sitting legislators Ghulam Ahmed Mir and Raman Mattoo, former state Additional Advocate General Anil Sethi, BSF DIG K C Padhi and J&K Police DSP M A Mir, was also mentioned in the report.

It also carried the details of the action taken so far against several hotels and guest houses allegedly used for carrying out flesh trade activities.

Meanwhile, the bail applications of the two sitting legislators, Sethi and the BSF DIG would come up for hearing before the division bench on July 1. The bail pleas had earlier been referred to the bench by Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM), Srinagar Mohammad Yousuf Akhoon on June 23.

On June 27, the CBI sent the two former ministers to a 14-day judicial remand.

Mir, a former Minister of State for Raods and Buildings and a Congress legislator from Dooru in Anantnag district, was arrested by the CBI from the Jammu and Kashmir House at Chanakyapuri in New Delhi on June 20.

Mattoo, a former Minister of State for Industries and Commerce and an independent legislator from Habba Kadal in Srinagar, was also arrested by the CBI from his residence at Gupkar here on June 20.

The DIG BSF had surrendered before the CBI here on June 7 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 on June 21.

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.

As soon as the scandal surfaced, massive demonstrations erupted in the entire Kashmir valley and the angry protestors brought down the houses of alleged sex racket kingpin Sabeena at Habba Kadal in the old city on June 5.

On May 3, the Jammu and Kashmir High Court took a suo motu cognisance of the case and then on May 12 admitted a public interest litigation filed by the Kashmir Bar Association.

Since then the High Court is hearing the sex racket case and monitoring the investigations into the scandal by the CBI.

UNI AG VD GC1656