HC steps in to monitor MP honeytrap scandal probe

Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh high court has begun monitoring the high profile honey trap racket that purportedly hooked several babus and political leaders in the state.

The Indore bench of MP high court on Monday pulled up Kamal Nath government for frequently reconstituting the special investigation team (SIT) set up to probe the scandal and ordered it not to change the investigating officers (IOs) of the case without its permission. The state government has changed SIT chief twice in a span of eight days, raising eyebrows in several quarters. The Indore bench of MP HC would now monitor the probe into honey trap scandal, the petitioner in the case Manohar Dalal told the media.

A division bench of the Indore HC, comprising justice Satish Chandra and justice Sailendra Shukla also expressed its displeasure over the status report that was filed by the SIT before it and ordered the SIT to submit a report detailing progress made in the investigation so far, on the next date of hearing on November two. The court also directed the SIT chief and director general of police Rajendra Singh to ensure that all the electronic documents, including videos, sex chats and mobile call data seized were tested in CFSL at Hyderabad and not in the laboratory run by the state government.

Around 4,000 smut videos, sex chats and pictures of the trapped playboys in compromising position were recovered from the laptop, cell phones and pen drives seized from the five women arrested on charges of honey trapping and then blackmailing their victims for money.

In a related development, the SIT issued notices to people, purportedly hooked by the honey trapping gang, named in the dossier submitted to the DGP of MP V.K. Singh.