Sting reporter arrested, 'victim' sent to 8-day judicial custody

New Delhi, Sep 7 (UNI) Moving closer to draw curtains on the sting operation case, police today arrested the TV channel reporter, involved in the operation that 'exposed' a teacher selling a student for prostitution, even as the 'victim' in the case was sent to 8-day judicial custody by a local court here.

Prakash Singh, who worked with 'Live India' channel and had conducted a 'sting operation' on a government school teacher, depicting her as running a prostitution racket, was arrested by the Crime Branch sleuths after his daylong detention, according to a senior police official.

''He has been charged with the same sections under which the girl was done -- criminal conspiracy, cheating and fabrication of false evidence.'' Also, court testimony of Tej Narain Singh, the driver of the van, used in the sting operation, was recorded under section 164, he said adding that ''We have enough evidence to prove that the reporter and the 'victim' girl were in league in the fake sting operation.'' The reporter's arrest comes a day after the girl, who posed as a victim of the racket, was nabbed.

Meanwhile, a Delhi court, earlier in the day, sent the 'victim' Rashmi Singh to judicial custody till September 15.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Alok Agrawal sent the girl to eight days' Judicial Custody after she was produced in the court today. She was charged with cheating, fabrication of evidence and criminal conspiracy.

Rashmi, who had posed as a 'student' in the sex racket allegedly run by her teacher Uma Khurana, was arrested last evening.

Uma Khurana, a mathematics teacher of the Sarvodaya Kanya Vidyalaya, was shown in the sting operation, as running a syndicate of prostitution and making pornographic films, featuring her present and former girl students.

The airing of the episode had led to mob violence near Turkman Gate in Central Delhi's Daryaganj area on August 30 last.

Singh is the fourth person to be arrested in the case.

Earlier, Uma Khurana and her alleged accomplice Virendra Arora had been arrested and are presently under judicial custody.

UNI