Mehbooba accuses CBI of shielding Omar Abdullah in sex scandal

Srinagar, July 29 (ANI): Mehbooba Mufti, leader of People's Democratic Party (PDP), today blamed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the federal investigating agency, of shielding Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah in the sex scandal case of 2006.

She said that the investigation by the CBI lost its momentum after some names like Omar Abdullah had cropped up.

"There are 190 names in the list and when names of the influential people cropped up, the investigating agency stopped the probe. We only had asked for a CBI inquiry but it stopped the probe when big names cropped up and pressure was exerted from top and other vested interests," said Mehbooba Mufti.

Earlier in the day, the PDP legislators raising this issue of scandal and alleged involvement of Omar Abdullah stalled the proceedings in the state assembly.

On Tuesday (July 28), the PDP leader Muzaffar Hussain Baig had linked Omar Abdullah with the infamous sex scandal that had rocked Kashmir in 2006. Consequently, Abdullah submitted his resignation to the Governor.

At the same time, in New Delhi, Union Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram had come to Abdullah's defence by saying that his name does not figure in the charge sheet filed by the CBI in the sex scandal.

In 2006, the CBI, the country's federal police probing the sex scandal, arrested two former state ministers and lawmakers, but later freed them on bail.

Reportedly, girls, some of them minors, were said to have been supplied to politicians, bureaucrats and top brass of the state police.

No sooner than the racket was uncovered in 2006, violent protests across the Himalayan region were witnessed. The scandal is still under investigation by the authorities. (ANI)