Gujarat adds ‘sex scam’ to Himachal election heat

Campaigning for the coming Himachal Pradesh assembly elections has already seen its share of sex, lies and photographs, mostly centred in neighbouring Punjab. Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh had sent men to raid outgoing Himachal CM and BJP leader Prem Kumar Dhumal’s properties recently. The BJP for its part has made much of the scandal involving an IAS officer considered close to Amarinder caught with his boss’s wife plus brandished photographs of the CM himself and ‘‘a woman friend’’.

The Punjab ministers, Bajwa and Samra, had stayed in Ahmedabad from December 2-9 to campaign for the Congress in Gujarat. Shah admitted neither the two nor Lovely was named in the FIR. ‘‘As customers, there can be no case against the ministers under the Suppression of Immoral Trafficking Act.’’ Also, he added, so far their involvement was known only on the basis of the statement of one of the accused. The names of the call girls are also not known. According to Shah, the racket came to light with the arrest of an employee of the hotel, Ajit George Christian, and the car driver who took the three Congressmen on the campaign trail. Police have not revealed the name of the driver. Shah said both Christian and the driver had stated they had provided girls to the three Congress leaders.

A rattled Amarinder held two press conferences within an hour in Jalandhar to deny the latest sex taint on his government. While Samra was present at the first meeting, he had disappeared in the second. Amarinder said the charges against the Congress leaders were false and politically motivated and he would go to the Supreme Court to file for defamation if needed. ‘‘Ever since we raked up the issue of corruption, the BJP has been targeting us,’’ Amarinder said, adding that the people of Himachal would see through these falsehoods.

Later, Bajwa too threatened a defamation case against the BJP top brass as well as legal action against Gujarat police officers. ‘‘Former CMs, ministers, MPs and numerous mediapersons were there at the hotel. ’’ The other minister in a spot, Samra, said the people knew him well and that the charges were aimed at the Himachal elections.

In Ahmedabad, Shah said the first arrests in the case were made two weeks before. He said police had also identified Neeraj Shah, in jail for a Rs 1.5-crore fraud, as the man who had paid the hotel bill of the Congress leaders. Shah is also said to have organised parties for them.

Ummed Singh Champawat, owner of Hotel Taj Residency Ummed, has not only denied knowledge of any immoral activities at his hotel but also claimed that police had ‘‘never’’ raided his premises.