DC to probe sex scandal
From Yoginder Gupta
Tribune News Service

PANIPAT, Sept. 30 — The Haryana Chief Minister, Mr Om Parkash Chautala, has asked the Deputy Commissioner, Mr Anurang Rastogi, to inquire into the allegations of a sex scandal in Panipat in which a state minister is said to be involved.
Mr Chautala told Tribune News Service that till yesterday no complaint had been lodged with any authority by anyone about the so-called sex scandal. The allegations against the Minister of State for Tourism, Mr Om Prakash Jain, seemed to be baseless, since a memorandum in this regard was submitted to the Deputy Commissioner yesterday by certain Congressmen, he had asked Mr Rastogi to conduct a thorough inquiry into the allegations contained in the memorandum.
The Chief Minister said if anyone was found guilty, strict action would be taken against him.
Meanwhile, the controversy involving Mr Jain, who is an Independent MLA from Panipat and has political rivals both in the Congress and the BJP, is snowballing. Prominent Congressmen, including Mr Virender Shah, a brother of the former Haryana Congress president, Mr Balbir Pal Shah, and Mr Mukesh Tuteja, president of the Panipat Municipal Committee, have demanded a CBI inquiry into the scandal. The president of the Panipat district unit of the BJP, Mr Niti Sen Bhatia, also wanted that a proper inquiry should be held in the incident and action should be taken against Mr Jain, if he is found guilty.
The alleged incident took place on the night of September 16 in the field hostel of the Panipat Thermal Plant owned by GENCO. Two rooms were booked on the telephonic instructions of Mr A.R. Gupta, Chief Engineer, GENCO, Chandigarh, for a trader of Assandh, Mr Bhagwan Dass Bansal, who is linked with certain Haryana politicians, including the former Chief Minister, Mr B.D. Gupta, and Mr Jain.
According to certain residents and the staff of the field hostel two girls were brought in a car to the hostel around 10.30 p.m. on September 16 by two men. After giving reference to the booking made by Mr Gupta on their behalf, they checked into two rooms, D-4 and S-4. After about half an hour another car, sporting a red light, also came there.
In the early hours of September 17, Mr Tuteja says, the residents heard a girl screaming. Some of them, he says, told him that they saw a girl being forcibly taken in a car. A chowkidar, he says, confirmed that one of the persons, who visited the field hostel, was Mr Jain.
Mr Jain, however, strongly denies the allegations. He describes the entire incident as a "figment of the imagination of my political rivals, particularly Congressmen, who are out to ruin my political career". He says he slept in the night of September 16 at house No. 125-A, Sector 8, Chandigarh. He gives the alibi of his wife and his sister in support of his version.
Chief Engineer Gupta confirmed to TNS that he had booked two rooms in the field hostel for Mr Bansal, who, he says, is a distant relative. After the controversy erupted, he says he enquired from Mr Bansal, who reportedly confirmed to him that he had visited the field hostel around 11 p.m. on September 16 but had left after about three hours.
Mr Bansal also reportedly told him that he had gone to the field hostel to meet one of his relatives, Mr Ishwar Jain, a property dealer of Jind for whom he had booked the rooms, Mr Jain, Mr Bansal reportedly told Mr Gupta, had stayed in the hostel along with his son and the daughter-in-law.
The Jains had come to Panipat in connection with some business.
Mr Bansal could not be contacted on the Assandh telephone number given to TNS by Mr Gupta. The person who received the call said the telephone did not belong to Mr Bansal.
However, Mr Tuteja says that an employee of the hostel confirmed to him that Mr Bansal had his breakfast on the morning of September 17 in the hostel.
Mr Tuteja, however, says after the scandal broke out no employee of the field hostel is willing to go on record. Therefore, what the Congress wants, he says is that a CBI inquiry should be held to find out the truth.
A tabloid published from Delhi has, meanwhile, tried to attack the alibi of Mr Jain by claiming that it had evidence to prove that he was not at his official residence in Chandigarh on the night of September 16. Mr Jain's contention is that he spent that night at a private house in Chandigarh.
It is not for the first time that any Haryana politician has faced such allegations. In the early eighties a minister, who is now dead, was linked with the disappearance of a woman at Ambala. She is yet to be found. The minister had lost the next elections and the alleged scandal used to resurface at the time of elections. In the nineties, his son and a nephew were alleged to be involved in the murder of a schoolgirl of Yamunanagar. A CBI inquiry could not yield any tangible results.
A minister of State in the Bhajan Lal Cabinet was dismissed for allegedly misbehaving with an air hostess. Another member of his Cabinet was also alleged to be behind the disappearance of a Karnal girl. However, he was not held responsible for the disappearance of the girl by the CBI.