MP honeytrap case: I-T dept to move HC to access documents, electronic evidence seized from accused.

Source – indiatoday.in

The Income Tax department will soon move the Indore bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court, seeking access to the documentary and electronic evidence that were recovered from the high profile women who have been arrested in the sensational honey trap case, a top IT official told India Today TV.

The I-T department had sought the same from the Special Investigation Team formed to investigate the case and the same was denied on grounds that the case was being monitored by the High Court and no case material can be provided to any agency without seeking permission from the court.

The Income Tax department had earlier served notices to Shweta Vijay Jain, Arti Dayal and Shweta Swapnil Jain three of the five women arrested in the case in jail, after details of the money and jewellery recovered from them were revealed by the SIT in the two chargesheets that have been filed in two different cases that are intrinsically connected.

The SIT referred the matter to the court and after getting a go-ahead the IT department questioned Shweta Vijay Jain on Monday and Arti Dayal on Tuesday. Shweta Swapnil Jain is likely to be questioned by the IT department on Wednesday.

According to a top Income Tax official the present round of questioning of the three accused women is focused around the source from where they got the money that was recovered from them.

On why the IT department wanted to access other evidence seized by the SIT the source said, The SIT in its chargesheet without naming certain officials said that they gave crores of rupees to these women. Our aim is to get to the actual source of money and find out if it has been accounted for, hence the need to access all evidence.”

It may be recalled that the SIT has already stated in court that all the electronic evidence recovered from the accused have been sent to Hyderabad for forensic examination and that it would take anything between six to eight months for the laboratory to submit its report.

The SIT in one of its chargesheet also named two Bhopal journalists who acted as middlemen and shared the spoils with the accused. The two journalists are also likely to be summoned by the IT department.