Chandigarh, March 21: A court here today framed
charges against all the 14 accused, including two sitting
MLAs, a senior bureaucrat and a suspended BSF official in the
Kashmir sex scandal.
District and sessions judge B S Mehandiratta framed the
charges against all the 14 accused who pleaded not guilty.
Charges were framed against four of the accused -- MLAs
Raman Mattoo (Independent) and Ghulam Ahmed Mir (Congress),
IAS officer Iqbal Khandey and suspended Deputy Superintendent
of Police Mohammad Yousuf Mir -- under section 5 of the
Prevention of Immoral Trafficking Act (PITA).
Riyaz Ahmed Kawa, another co-accused, has been charged
under section 3 of the immoral trafficking act.
Charges against the seven accused booked in the main case
have been framed under section 5 of the PITA read with charges
of rape under Section 376 of the IPC.
They were K C Padhi, suspended Deputy Inspector General,
BSF, Mohammad Ashraf Mir, Shabeer Ahmed Langoo, Shabeer Ahmed
Laway, Anil Sethi, the former Additional Advocate General of
Jammu and Kashmir, Masood Ahmed and Mehrazuddin Malik.
However, Sabeena, the alleged kingpin of the sex racket
and her husband Hameed Bulla have been charged under Section
3, 4, 5 read with criminal conspiracy under Section 120-b of
the IPC.
Section 3 seeks punishment for operating a brothel or
allowing premises to be used as a brothel, Section 4 seeks
punishment for living on the earnings from prostitution and
section 5 seeks punishment for procuring girls for the
sake of prostitution.
Among the accused, Shabeer Ahmed Langoo has also been
charged under Section 67 of the Information Technology Act,
which provides punishment for publishing information that is
obscene in an electronic form.
The case has been adjourned to April 7 for the
examination of witness-1, the alleged rape victim.
Expressing dissatisfaction over the framing of charges
against the accused, the defence counsels maintained that they
will move the Punjab and Haryana High Court challenging the
same.
A case against the accused was registered by the Jammu
and Kashmir police on charges of rape and under the PITA
after a video clip containing obscene images of a minor girl
was recovered.
The case was transferred to Chandigarh after a special
leave petition was filed by the accused in the Supreme Court.
Of the accused, except Sabeena and her husband, the
others are out on bail.
Bureau Report
First Published: Wednesday, March 21, 2007, 00:00