SRINAGAR, MAY 1: While the police today arrested a prime accused in the case, the Jammu and Kashmir government has decided to transfer the sex scandal allegedly involving top politicians and security officials of the state to the CBI.

‘‘We want a transparent and thorough investigation so that the truth comes out,’’ Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad told The Indian Express today. ‘‘Whosoever is found guilty will be punished. Now nobody should have any doubts about the impartiality and authenticity of the probe.’’

First reported by the Express on April 27, the racket was busted after J-K Police found two CDs of a 15-year-old girl filmed in the nude. Subsequent investigations by the police led to the unearthing of a well-knit sex racket, involving two top politicians, 13 police and security forceS officers and 43 girls. The man arrested today, Mehraj-u-din, is believed to have been part of the racket.

Police initially tried to hush up the case by not revealing the involvement of senior police officers and politicians. However, the girls who reportedly had been forced into prostitution spilled the beans, two of them appearing on television. One of the girls even named three police officers and a senior IAS officer.

J-K’s Deputy Chief Minister Muzaffar Hussain Beig, the PDP’s Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and Mehbooba Mufti, besides National Conference president Omar Abdullah had all sought an impartial probe into the scandal.

The separatist leadership, from the moderate Mirwaiz Umar Farooq to hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani, had also demanded that the guilty politicians and officers be punished. Mirwaiz saw in the scandal a government strategy to patronise ‘‘immorality’’ in Kashmiri society.

The ringleader of the racket is believed to be Sabeena (who was arrested soon after the Express report), who allegedly lured the 15-year-old with the promise of a job. The Class VIII student was reportedly then filmed in the nude by a surrendered militant and blackmailed.

Today an angry mob tried to set on fire Sabeena’s house, and the adjoining house belonging to another accused, at Habba Kabal in Srinagar’s old city.

The 15-year-old is said to have told police that most of the girls in the racket had been similarly ‘‘blackmailed and coerced’’ into prostitution by Sabeena and the others.

Police report says the girl gave 48 names—including two former ministers and legislators belonging to the J-K’s ruling coalition, three Superintendents of Police, seven Deputy Superintendents of Police, a Deputy Inspector General of the BSF, two security force sources, 10 local businessmen and several government officials.