Sex scandal was kept under wraps for 2 yrs
Ishfaq Tantry
Tribune News Service
Srinagar, May 31
The J&K sex scandal case, in which a special Chandigarh court on Wednesday convicted five accused, including a former BSF DIG and DSP, was a chance discovery for the police.
In August 2004, the CID wing of the police unearthed a sex racket by sheer chance. Investigation was taken up and a case was registered against kingpin Sabina (now dead), her husband, four girls and three businessmen on October 14, 2004, at MR Gung police station in Srinagar.
During the investigation it was found that minor girls were “blackmailed and coerced” into flesh trade, and supplied to politicians, bureaucrats, businessmen and police and paramilitary officers. Sensing the gravity of the revelations, these “explosive details” were hushed up and so was the case until March 2006, when the local welfare committee of Habbakadal in Srinagar approached the police with two porn CDs featuring a minor girl and filed a complaint.
Based on the investigation into the content of the CDs, Sub-Divisional Police Officer Javeed Koul filed a report to the police higher-ups, informing them about the involvement of high-profile individuals.
Among the 48 names provided by the girl to the police were two former ministers and legislators, three SPs, seven DSPs, a BSF DIG, 10 local businessmen and several government officials.
It was only on April 29, 2006, when the contents of the SDPO’s confidential report were leaked by the media, the government was forced to hand over the case to the CBI. In the meantime, the HC had also taken suo motu cognisance followed by a petition by the Kashmir High Court Bar Association.
The CBI, which presented its final investigation report to the High Court, had presented two lists of the accused and promised to submit a third one also, which never came. The Division Bench of the HC, however, gave a dissenting judgment, naming many of the accused.
During this period, two top politicians, a senior bureaucrat, a DIG of the BSF, two SPs, and some other officials were arrested.
As no lawyers appeared for the accused in Srinagar on the instructions of the Bar Association, on September 2006, on the direction of the Supreme Court, the case proceedings were transferred to Chandigarh, which pronounced its final verdict on May 30, 2018, but by this time many witnesses had turned hostile and the victims also retracted their statement, resulting in acquittal of many of the accused.
Fourteen accused of the total 18 accused named by the CBI in the final report were tried in Chandigarh. Among them were former J&K ministers Ghulam Ahmed Mir and Raman Mattoo, BSF DIG KC Padhi, former state Additional Advocate General Anil Sethi, DSP Mohammad Ashraf Mir, IAS officer Mohammad Iqbal Khanday and hotel owner Riyaz Ahmed Kawa. The trial of the four others is pending in a Srinagar court.
CBI came in after media leaked police report
- In August 2004, the CID unearthed a sex racket by sheer chance. A case was registered against kingpin Sabina on October 14, 2004, in Srinagar.
- Probe found that minor girls were supplied to politicians, bureaucrats, police and paramilitary officers.
- Sensing the gravity of the revelations, the case was hushed up till March 2006, when a welfare committee approached the police with two porn CDs.
- In April 2006, when a police report on involvement of high-profile people was leaked by the media, the government was forced to hand over case to the CBI.
