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| Chandigarh court holds 5 guilty, two acquitted | | Kashmir 2006 sex scandal | | Ishtiyaq Ahmad
Early Times Report
Srinagar, May 30: In a high profile 2006 sex scandal case in Kashmir, a special court in Chandigarh Wednesday held five people guilty while two accused including the then Advocate General Anil Sethi were acquitted by the court.
The sex racket hit the headlines in 2006, after police found an MMS and two VCDs showing sexual exploitation of a minor girl. The cops later arrested a local woman, Sabina, who then confessed of sending girls, including minors, to politicians, senior bureaucrats and policemen.
On Wednesday the court convicted former border security force's deputy inspector general (DIG) KC Padi, former deputy superintendent of police Mohammed Ashraf Mir, and three others, Maqsood Ahmad, Shabir Ahmad Langoo, Shabir Ahmad Laway.
Sources told Early Times that their sentence will be decided on June 4.The court also acquitted former additional advocate general Anil Sethi and another accused named Mehraj ud din Malik.
It is to mention here that so serious was the impact of the sex scandal that it had engulfed the Srinagar in a wave of public protests which had blown the lid off the extensive sleaze racket.
The demonstrations followed the sensational disclosures made to the police by a 15-year-old girl about how she and scores of other girls were coerced into becoming sex slaves for senior members of the administration and of the security apparatus.
The racket would have remained undiscovered had it not been for the two CDs with explicit scenes which surfaced in the Habbakadal locality of the Old City in Srinagar, where community elders took the discs to the local police station.
According to the prosecution, Kingpin of the scandal, Sabina who had died during trial was running a brothel in Srinagar and luring young girls with jobs and monetary benefits and forcing them into prostitution.
Police had said that 43 women, including a minor, were in the ring run under the patronage of influential men. Several persons, including some senior politicians, were also named in the scam but no action was taken in the absence of concrete evidence.
Then chief minister had handed the case over to Central Bureau of Investigation, whose investigation led it to a massive sex scandal involving ministers and several influential men.
In September 2006, the SC had transferred the case to Chandigarh sessions court from Jammu and Kashmir. The order to transfer the trial to Chandigarh came on a petition of 14 accused who contended that no lawyer in Srinagar was willing to defend them. |
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