Bail of former JK minister in sex case defferred

Srinagar, July 17: A local court today deferred till July 21 the bail application of former Jammu and Kashmir minister and sitting legislator Raman Mattoo and a hotel owner involved in the sex racket.

The Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM), Srinagar Mohammad Yousuf Akhoon rejected the bail application of another minister Ghulam Ahmad Mir and senior IAS officer Iqbal Khanday on July 14.

The court also referred the cases of nine other accused, including Deputy Inspector General of Border Security Force (BSF), a senior police officer and kingpin Sabeena to sessions court where the case will come up for hearing on July 18.

Besides Mir, Mattoo and Khanday, among the other arrested in connection the sex racket are sacked state Additional Advocate General Anil Sethi, Jammu and Kashmir Police Counter-Insurgency Kashmir (CIK) wing DSP Mohammad Yousuf Mir and Naaz Hotel manager Riyaz Kawa.

Mir, a former Minister of State for Roads 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 the CJM following a request by the CBI, also surrendered in a local court at Jammu on June 21.

On June 29, the CBI arrested Khanday, an IAS officer of 1978 batch and Principal Secretary in the Planning and Development Department.

The sex racket case was handed over to the CBI 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 kingpin of the racket Sabeena at Habba Kadal in the old city on June 5.

On May three, the Jammu and Kashmir High Court took a suo motu cognizance 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