Honey-trap probe: SIT reconstituted, BJP sees cover up

Bhopal: The honey-trap and blackmailing racket that has threatened to expose sexual escapades of some high profile people in Madhya Pradesh has taken yet another twist with the Kamal Nath government, in a late night move on Tuesday, reconstituting the special investigation team (SIT) formed to probe into it.

Incidentally, this is the second time in the last eight days the SIT has been reconstituted, replacing its chief and most of its members.

The “sudden” move by the state government to disband the SIT and then reconstitute it has raised many eyebrows in official as well as political circles here.

“It sounds mysterious as to why the SIT has been disbanded and reconstituted again and again. Is the Kamal Nath government under influence of any pressure group to shield the high and mighty culprits? It puzzles everybody as to why the SIT is recast, every time it made some progress in the investigation,” BJP spokesman Rajneesh Agrawal said on Wednesday.

The state government late on Tuesday night issued a notification reconstituting the SIT replacing additional director general (ADG) (anti-terrorist squad) Sanjeev Shami with ADG (cyber cell) Rajendra Kumar as its chief.

The strength of SIT has also been pruned down from eight to three now.

Interestingly, Mr Shami had replaced inspector general of police (IGP) D. Sreeniwas Verma as head of SIT within 24 hours of the latter’s appointment as chief of the probe panel last week. The recent decision to revamp the special investigation teamcomes in the wake of public bickering of two senior police officers over investigation into the issue, causing huge embarrassment to the Kamal Nath government.

Special director general of police Purushottam Sharma had virtually questioned the motive behind linking a “safe house” rented by cyber cell of MP police in Ghaziabad with the honey-trap scandal, by DGP V.K. Singh.

The acts of washing dirty linen in public by two senior police officers of Madhya Pradesh has left chief minister Kamal Nath annoyed prompting him to act, sources in chief minister’s office told this newspaper on Tuesday.

Around 1,000 clips of explicit videos and audios and sex chats have reportedly been recovered from computers and cellphones of the members of the racket.

Five women and their driver were arrested by the police here in connection with the racket in the intervening night to September 18-19.