Cong leader & ex-Minister among first 2 politicians in sex abuse net

A few hours later, the agency picked up former junior Industries Minister Raman Mattoo from his residence in the high-security Gupkar road area. Earlier the investigating agency had arrested a Deputy Inspector General of BSF, K S Padhi, and a Deputy Superintendent of J-K Police besides seven others and four women for their alleged involvement.

“We arrested (the two leaders) on the basis of statements made by the 15-year-old victim and Sabina (the alleged kingpin) which were corroborated by other girls as well,’’ said CBI DIG Pankaj Kumar, who is heading the probe. “Much more is still awaited,’’ he said, when asked whether other J&K politicians are under the scanner.

The arrests, CBI sources confirmed, were made after statements of four women were recorded in the presence of a District and Sessions Judge, as instructed by the High Court.

The identities and whereabouts of these four women and their Ministerial ‘‘clients’’ were first provided by Sabina to the CBI and then cross-checked with witness statements.

The women are said to have admitted having visited the politicians’ residences between 2002-2005 when they held Ministerial portfolios. One woman told the CBI that she went to meet the Minister in connection with a job but was later ‘‘exploited’’ by him.

The Delhi court granted two days’ transit remand to the CBI to allow it to take Mir for a test identification parade in Srinagar. Counsel for Mir Sohail Khan alleged that Mir was framed because of “internal Congress politics.” He moved an application before the court seeking bail, which was dismissed by the court.

Mir, 47, an MLA from South Kashmir constituency Dooru, was chosen by the Congress for a year-long training in political coordination in 1980. Mir steadily strengthened his political contacts in the party’s central leadership and also joined former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s election campaign. Sources said Mir had gone to New Delhi to lobby for a berth in the forthcoming expansion of the Ghulam Nabi Azad Cabinet.

The other one arrested today, Raman Mattoo, 42, is the only Kashmiri Pandit MLA and was junior Industries Minister in the Mufti government. A prominent businessman, Mattoo is the son-in-law of former Law Minister and National Conference leader P L Handoo.

He joined politics in 1993 but came to the limelight after he won the Habakadal constituency as an Independent in 2002 elections and was subsequently inducted in the Congress-PDP coalition as a minister.

The sex abuse scandal was first exposed when The Indian Express published the contents of a confidential report submitted by Sub Divisional Police Officer, Shaheedgunj police station, in Srinagar.

According to the report, a group of elders approached the Shaheedgunj station with two CDs on March 14.

‘‘These CDs contained nude scenes of a minor girl from Habakadal (a neighbouring locality). The girl child was summoned along with her parents for investigation,’’ the report said. ‘‘A Class 8 student, the girl had to leave her studies after she was coerced into prostitution.’’

The police report said that the victim made startling revelations exposing a well-knit prostitution net where 43 young girls were ‘‘blackmailed and coerced’’ and then regularly supplied to several politicians, police and security force officers, businessmen and surrendered militants.