J038;Ks files

Three years after a ring of prostitution that Sabina ranfrom a downtown locality,under official patronagewas busted,she has relegated herself to obscurity. She has changed her name to Mehnaz and covers her face whenever she goes out of her home. Sources reveal her contact with an Islamist womens group,soon after her release from jail,was responsible for this change.

When the Srinagar sex abuse scandal surfaced in 2006,exposing official patronage and the involvement of top politicians,bureaucrats,police and security force officers,Sabinas house at Habakadal was the first target of public rage. The house lies in ruins even today.

Sabina was soon behind bars. And when she was released from jail,she went into anonymity. It was a year and a half ago that Sabina shifted to this new locality and built her new house,almost identical in design to her Habakadal residence.

At Sabinas new house,a knock at the door brought a teenager out. Is Sabina there? He went back into the house and Sabinas husband,Abdul Hameed Bulla,came out. No,you cant talk to her, he said. Sorry,leave this place, he ordered.

Sabinas story begins from Ijhara village in Urias a girl who knew she wanted to make it big in life. Sources say she shifted to Srinagar and in 2000,married Bulla,an employee in the state health department at Habakadal in downtown Srinagar. Sabina had already established contact with Riyaz Ahmad Langoo,a man who later became her closest associate in developing a well-knit sex abuse ring.

Initially,Sabina and her family lived in Chinkral in Srinagar,where she made her first moves in the flesh trade. Sources say Sabinas first contact with police and security agencies was through a number of sources and counter-insurgents whom Langoo introduced to her. And that was how she ensured official patronage for her activities. It first began with the local police station and the neighbourhood security force bunker. They were asked not to harass her. This encouraged her to weave a bigger web and soon,she would supply girls,most of them teenagers,to police and security force officers and politicians.

Her activities,according to sources,were not completely hidden from the public gaze but the frequent visits from security forces and police ensured that it remained limited to whispers in the old city.

The first hush-up

On October 7,2000,the police received information that a man was escorting a group of three girls to New Delhi for prostitution and they were about to cross the Banihal tunnel. A team from the Qazigund police station laid an ambush near Glass Tower chowki on the national highway and the group was arrested. The man was identified as Nitesh Kumar of 11-28 Motigarh,Delhi.

As soon as the girls were identified,the policemen knew the case was sensitive. One of the girls,Gulshana Akhtar alias Pepsi of Kaw Mohalla in downtown Srinagar,was a Special Police Officer. During the investigations,she was hostile towards the policemen,repeatedly dropping the name of a senior police officer. The other two girls were identified as Tahira and Bunty,who too were SPOs.

One of the investigators informed his superiors and the young sub-inspector received a surprise order: Dont pursue the case. Shaken by the clout of the girls,the policemen buried the file and let the four free.

Eight years later,the case is still under investigation. The case file,that had detailed confession reports of the three women and the man,is missing from the Qazigund police station. Though Sabina and Pepsi ran separate prostitutions rings,they shared several of their high profile clientele.

The second hush-up

In 2004,sources say,the then Intelligence chief of Jamp;K Police had been receiving inputs about the existence of a well-knit prostitution racket in the city.

In August,the officer learnt that a young woman driving a white Ambassador had been dropping his name and intimidating traffic cops only because she shared a surname with him. Known for his integrity,the officer immediately swung into action and asked his sleuths to check the antecedents of the woman,sources said.

Soon,intelligence reports suggested the existence of a well-knit sex racket that was being run from several places across Srinagar. An elaborate covert operation was launched and the surveillance of mobile phones of the suspects finally led the intelligence sleuths to Sabina.

The police carried out raids across the city and Sabina was arrested along with her husband Bhulla,businessmen Ashwani Singh and Jagbeer Singh,trader Ghulam Qadir Bhat,besides four girls.

Surveillance of Sabinas cellphone had already turned the complexion of the case. It was no longer just another sex trade racket. Sabina had been running a prostitution ring with an exclusive clientele of powerful politicians,security forces and police officers. The support from the law enforcement machinery and access to lawmakers had ensured that Sabina and her ring enjoyed official patronage.

Sources reveal that this encouraged Sabina to rope in girls in distress and push them into the flesh trade,knowing that the fear of disgrace,humiliation and social repercussions would silence them forever.

But once the investigations established Sabinas links to powerful people,police investigators were ordered to immediately halt the probe. But a case had been registered under the Prevention of Immoral Trafficking Act against Sabina,her husband and the others at Maharajgunj police station.

The fear of exposure led the police to call a press briefing but sources say they deliberately omitted the explosive details that had linked the ring to politicians,security force officers and police officers. According to sources,testimonies of the four girls arrested in the case in October 2004 were struck off the case file. However,sources say,the Jamp;K Polices intelligence wing had informed the state government,especially the then Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed,of the involvement of ministers,legislators,police and security force officers but it was hushed up because of fear of the fallout on the coalition government.

For lack of political will,the investigators didnt dig further. The case was weakened so much that Sabina and the other accused were bailed out in a month-and-a-half. After her release,Sabina shifted from Chinkral mohalla to Habakadal. Encouraged by the support from her clients in the government,Sabina went back into the world of crime.

In fact,the fallout of this flawed execution of the case finally led to two lawsuits against the lower rung police investigators; an accused filed a defamation suit and even a plea for quashing of the FIR itself.

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Sabina was not disturbed till March 14,2006,when a group of elders from Habakadals welfare committee approached the Shaheed Gunj police station with two porn CDs and filed a complaint,saying a local girl had been filmed. The police identified the girl as a 15-year-old girl from Drebyar,Habakadal,who was called along with her parents and questioned. The story of the 15-year-old victim was linked to Sabina and her clients. The police arrested Sabinas associate Riyaz Langoo and Naseer Ahmad.

Once Sabinas name cropped up during investigations,the top police brass sought a report from the then Sub Divisional Police Officer Javaid Koul,who was investigating the case. And the investigating officer sent a written confidential report to his superiors,outlining the involvement of Sabina in what was an organised rape of a minor by top politicians,police and security force officers. Immediately,the investigators were asked to hush up the case.

When The Indian Express exposed the racket on April 29,quoting this confidential report,the police arrested Sabina. The expose led to a public outcry,forcing the government to hand over the investigation to the CBI.

The final hush-up

The CBI probe initially went full steam. Two former ministers,a BSF DIG,a top IAS officer and senior police officers were arrested while several top Jamp;K politicians,including ministers,legislators and officers,were named. But then there was a sudden halt.

Highly placed sources have revealed to The Sunday Express that the CBI was requested to go slow at the highest level because there was serious threat of a total demoralisation in the political class as well as the security establishment fighting separatists. It was going out of control. If there was rigorous probe,it sex abuse scandal would have transcended out of Kashmir, a top Jamp;K Congress politician said.

The suspect list

On July 28,former Deputy CM and PDP leader Muzaffar Beig dropped a bombshell in the Jamp;K Assembly. I am sad to say that Omar Abdullah,son of Farooq Abdullah,is at serial number 102 in this list, he said,waving a paper. He Omar Abdullah has lost the moral authority to rule the state.

There was pin-drop silence for a moment. The treasury benches looked stunned. Chief Minister Omar Abdullah sank into his chair before he finally stood up and declared that he will shun the top job till his name is cleared.

As the proceedings of the House went live on television,everybody was curious to know the real story behind this mysterious list. Did Omars name figure in it? Was it prepared by the CBI? Why was no action taken against the Abdullahs when PDP was part of the ruling coalition in Jamp;K?

The same day,Beig called a press conference,where he said that Omar Abdullahs name does not figure in the list of accused,but that of suspects. Investigations conducted by The Indian Express reveal that the CBI has prepared no formal list of suspects. However,the list Beig was referring to in the House is the List of Codes Allotted to Other Persons,prepared during the CBIs investigations into the sex scandal.

The main purpose of this list was to keep the identity of peoplewhose names had cropped up during the initial probe and especially in Sabinas statementconfidential and not let any innocent persons image be tarnished by exposing the name without properly corroborating the evidence. Thus each such name was given a code to keep the identities secret. However,once the investigating agency found sufficient evidence against a person and established the veracity of the accusation,then the names were released.

Omar Abdullahs name does figure at serial number 102 of this list of people whose names had appeared but could not be corroborated later. Farooq Abdullahs name is at serial number C-38 but his residence is mentioned as Coop Colony,Peerbagh. Abdullahs residence has always been the high security Gupkar Road and there is no Farooq Abdullah at Cooperative Colony,Peerbagh.

Most of the 192 names on this list are either wrongly spelt or are only first names with sketchy details about their profession,residential address and other identification details. For example,one top bureaucrat is named as Gora Chitta Commissioner. His identity was,however,established later when the investigators found enough evidence to nail him. Another person has been identified as a man who has a shop for selling carpets at Dalgate.

This List of Codes Allotted to Other Persons was referred to in the last major judgment delivered by a two-member bench of the Jamp;K High Court on October 8,2007. The High Court order had said that the girls had denied the alleged occurrences and so,did not find it proper to name the people who had appeared in Sabinas statement.

The CBI insists that the total number of accused in the case is 37,of whom 17 were chargesheeted in six different cases while there was no evidence against anyone else. In fact,sources in the CBI reveal that a lot of names were being deliberately and wrongly brought up during the probe with an aim to settle scores.