Sex clip case: Senior journalist Vinod Verma sent to jail till November 13

RAIPUR: Senior Journalist Vinod Verma, arrested by the Chhattisgarh police in connection with a minister’s alleged

sex CD

scandal, has been remanded to judicial custody by a court here till November 13.

After completion of his three day police remand, Verma was produced before the court of Fourth sessions judge Bhavesh Kumar Vatti, who remanded him to judicial custody till November 13. Poilce did seek further custody of the former BCC correspondent.

Vinod Verma was arrested by Raipur police from his home in Ghaziabad early Friday morning over allegations of extortion. Later, he was taken for Indranipuram police station where he was reportedly questioned for several hours.

Police had claimed that Verma was allegedly in possession of a sex tape of state PWD minister Rajesh Munat and the allegations against him was that he was in possession of about 500 CDs of the sex clip. Later, a court granted transit bail to Verma, who was brought to the state capital for further investigation.

However, Verma maintained that he possessed only a pen drive and he has nothing to do with the CDs which the police claim to have recovered from his residence. “ Chhattisgarh government is not happy with me. As I have video of a minister”, he reportedly told the media while being taken into custody. Later at Raipur, he also maintained that “whatever has come out is only a tip of the ice berg”. However, he could not elaborate.

Stung by the controversy, PWD Minister Rajesh Munat asserted that the sex video clip was 100 per cent fake saying that he was open to face probe. Subsequently, the state cabinet decided to hand over the case of entire sex clip scandal to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) with chief minister Raman Singh saying that the central agency probe is required to unearth the conspiracies involved.

Meanwhile, a local television channel, based on its own investigations, claimed that a porn video, available in internet, was morphed and doctored to super-impose minister’s face and present it as a sex video clip of the minister. Subsequently, BJP workers began protests against the Congress in the state, demanding legal action against state Congress president Bhupesh Baghel and others for attempting character assassination of minister and tarnish the image of the BJP government.

Congress, however, demanded that the minister should resign to facilitate an impartial probe and also pressed for a special investigation Team (SIT), headed by a sitting supreme court or high court judge, to ensure an impartial probe.