(rptg, with correction in lead para)

Chandigarh, Oct 12 (UNI) A local court today permitted nine of the 13 arrested accused in the Srinagar sex scandal case to be shifted from here to the Srinagar Central Jail to enable them to perform prayers on Id-ul-Fitr on October 25.

The accused, presently lodged in the Burail Central Jail here, had filed their application in the court of District and Sessions Judge B S Mehndiratta that it would be easy for their family members to meet them in the Srinagar jail in the ongoing month of Ramzan.

The court ordered that the accused be shifted to Srinagar Central Jail from October 14 to November 2.

They will be brought back to the Burail jail here by November 2 for further hearing in the case the next day.

The accused had been shifted to the Burail Jail here when the hearing against them had begun in the Chandigarh court last month.

They include former J and K ministers Ghulam Hasan Mir and Raman Mattoo, BSF DIG K C Padhi, former J and K Additional Advocate General Anil Sethi, DSP Mohammad Ashraf Mir, a hotel owner Riyaz Ahmed Kawa, Sabeena, the alleged kingpin of the sex racket, her husband Abdul Hamid Shabir Langoo, middlemen Shabir Ahmed Laway alias Shabir Kala, Mehrajuddin Malik, Masood Ahmed, Mohammad Yusuf Mir and Abdul Hamid Bullah.

Another accused being heard in Chandigarh is suspended J and K IAS officer Iqbal Khandey, presently on bail.

UNI PS VD KP1800