CBI shielding Omar in sex scandal case: PDP

Pandemonium prevailed in the Jammu and Kashmir assembly on Wednesday as the ruling National Conference and the opposition People's Democratic Party members traded acrimonious charges against each other.

Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, who tendered his conditional resignation to Governor N N Vohra on Tuesday, chose to stay away from the assembly today.

The trouble in the house began when Speaker Mohammad Akbar Lone read out a letter from the Central Bureau of Investigation which stated that the chief minister had never figured in the list of accused in the state's infamous sex scandal case in 2006.

As the copies of the letter were circulated by the assembly staff among the members, the PDP members sprang to their feet and tore the letter off, demanding a judicial probe into the whole affair. Angry PDP members accused the CBI of aiding Omar and helping him cover up his role in the scandal.

The ruling NC responded to this gesture of PDP by leveling charges of 'moral turpitude' against Muzaffar Hussain Beigh, whose allegations against Abdullah on Tuesday had  triggered off a major political crisis in the seven-month

The chief minister responded to the allegation by tendering his conditional resignation to the governor on Tuesday.

State Law Minister Ali Mohammad Sagar told the speaker that NC will move a privilege motion against Beigh for leveling allegations against the CM.

Governor Vohra, who left for New Delhi on Tuesday, has asked Abdullah to continue in his post till he takes a decision after examining the matter.

Union Home Minister P Chidambaram had said on Tuesday that there was no mention of Omar in CBI investigations into the case.

The sex scandal rocked the state in 2006 with the arrest of a woman, who allegedly claimed during interrogations that she used to send girls, including minors, to politicians, senior policemen and bureaucrats.

Among the 17 people chargesheeted by the CBI were G A Mir and Raman Mattoo, both ministers in the then PDP-led government, and Mohammed Iqbal Khandey, former principle secretary to the then Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed.