Wrapping up its probe into another case related to the sex racket in Jammu and Kashmir, the Central Bureau of Investigation on Saturday chargesheeted seven persons including two former state ministers and a senior IAS officer for allegedly procuring girls for prostitution.
This is the second chargesheet filed by the agency in just a little over two months since the agency began investigating the racket. The earlier chargesheet was filed in connection with another case against nine persons, including senior Border Security Force officer K C Padhi and former additional advocate general Anil Sethi, for allegedly raping a minor girl.
The CBI's Special Crime Unit filed chargesheets against legislators Raman Mattoo (Independent) and G A Mir (Congress), both former ministers, suspended principal secretary (planning) Iqbal Khandey, Deputy Superintendent of Police Mohammed Ashraf Mir, hotel owner Riyaz Kawa, Sabeena, the racket's alleged kingpin, and her husband Abdul Hamid in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate M Y Akhoon.
However, in the absence of Akhoon, who was away attending the golden jubilee celebrations of the Jammu and Kashmir high court in which President A P J Abdul Kalam was the chief guest, the chargesheets were received by a duty magistrate.
The magistrate asked the CBI to appear before Akhoon on Monday as he was the competent authority to take cognizance of a chargesheet.
All the seven accused, arrested in June, are currently in judicial custody. Mir and Mattoo, who were ministers under former chief minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, were arrested on June 20 and booked under section five of the Immoral Trafficking (Prevention) Act for procuring women for prostitution.
Mir, the Congress legislator from Dooru in Anantnag, was arrested in the national capital and taken to the Kashmir Valley after the CBI secured his transit remand, while Mattoo, the legislator from Habbakadal, was picked up from in Srinagar.
The CBI nabbed Khandey, a 1978 batch officer of the Jammu and Kashmir cadre of the IAS, from his residence on June 29 and placed him under arrest after questioning him.
Khandey, who was earlier principal secretary to former chief minister Sayeed, and Deputy Superintendent of Police Mohammed Yusuf Mir, who was arrested on June 30, were booked under the Immoral Trafficking (Prevention) Act.
Kawa, the owner of a hotel, was booked under section three of the same act for allegedly allowing his premises to be used for prostitution. Sabeena and her husband Abdul Hamid were named in all the chargesheets filed by the CBI on Saturday for allegedly supplying girls for prostitution.
The CBI had filed its first chargesheet in the high profile sex racket case on June 24. It related to case involving a 15-year-old girl, who in her statement to the CBI had claimed that 11 people had raped her while 20 others used to visit the residence of Sabeena.
Besides Padhi and Sethi, the CBI has named deputy superintendent of state police Mohammed Ashraf Mir, Sabeena, her husband Hamid, Shabir Langoo, Shabir Kala, Mehrajuddin Malik and Masood Ahmed.