MP govt seeks court intervention to prevent honey-trap accussed from getting access to video evidence

Source:-https://www.indiatoday.in

The Madhya Pradesh government does not want to hand over the video and electronic evidence seized in the murky honeytrap case that rocked the state in September 2019 to the accused.

A Special Court in Indore on December 4 had asked the Special Investigation Team formed to investigate the case and to hand over all seized video and electronic evidence to Shweta Vijay Jain, one of the main accused in the case within seven days.

The government has now approached the Indore bench of the Madhya Pradesh High seeking a stay on the December 4 order of the special court.

The SIT meanwhile has also moved an application in the special court appraising it of the petition moved before the High Court.

The Special Court will now hear the matter on December 14.

Shweta Vijay Jain who was one of the six arrested on September 18, 2019, in connection with the case in which top politicians and bureaucrats were allegedly lured into sex and discreetly filmed, through her counsel has sought all video evidence that had been found against her to be handed over to her under section 207 of the Criminal Procedure Code.

The Indore Crime Branch and the Anti-Terrorist Squad of the Madhya Pradesh Police had arrested five women and one man in simultaneous raids that were conducted in Indore and Bhopal in September last year.

The raids were conducted after investigations into a complaint of Indore city Engineer Harbhajan Singh who had alleged that he was being blackmailed by some members of the gang.

Top politicians of the ruling Bharatiya Janta Party and top bureaucrats who held positions of power and eminence in the previous Shivraj Singh government were allegedly filmed by the gang after luring them into sex.

An Indore-based newspaper had broadcast some of the videos and audios allegedly seized by the SIT during the raids on its YouTube channel which earned the ire of the then Chief Minister Kamal Nath.

The Indore police registered more than 56 cases against Jeetu Soni, the owner of the newspaper, including those of gang rape. Fearing police action Jeetu Soni had gone underground and managed a staged arrest from Gujarat only after Shivraj Singh Chouhan returned to power.

The SIT investigating the case had earlier presented before the court that all the video and electronic evidence that had been seized from the accused had been sent for forensic examination to the FSL laboratory in Hyderabad, from where the final report was awaited.