Some of the accused. The honey-trap racket, which is unravelling as one of the biggest sex scandal of Madhya Pradesh involving political leaders, businessmen and bureaucrats, reminds one of the 'Vyapam' scam which rocked the state 6 years ago. Even as 12 top serving bureaucrats and eight former Ministers of Madhya Pradesh seem to be in big trouble, kingpin Shweta Jain has confessed to the SIT that she coerced at least two dozen college going girls, from lower-middle-class families, who were used to seduce the high and mighty of MP government.
Shweta also admitted that the main objective of the honey trap was to procure lucrative government contracts, running into several hundred crores, from the targeted VIPs. Most of the contracts were awarded to reputed companies by Shweta Jain and her aide Aarti Dayal on a commission basis. Besides, procuring contracts, Shweta was also managing postings of several IAS and IPS officers at top of the line assignments.
During interrogation by Special Investigation Team (SIT) in Indore, Shweta said that on-demand of bureaucrats she lured many college girls and finally coerced them to bed with men, mostly of their father’s age.
In one instance, SIT confronted Shweta with a college girl Monica Yadav. Monica disclosed to SIT that on the pretext of seeking admission in a prestigious college she came in contact with Shweta, who claimed that she was close to the top brass of the MP government.
To convince Monica, an outsider to Bhopal, Shweta took her to Secretariat in Bhopal where she was introduced to three secretary-level IAS officers. Shweta also provided an Audi car to Monica to shuttle between Indore and Bhopal.
A senior SIT official said that Monica initially refused to oblige Shweta and returned to her parents home in Narsinghgarh. Subsequently, Aarti Dayal visited Monica’s place and told her father Hiralal that if he sends her daughter to Bhopal, then her NGO would bear all costs of Monica’s education.
Later, Hiralal, whose financial condition was not good, allowed her 18-year-old daughter to leave for Bhopal with Aarti.
In a statement given to SIT, Monica said that one day Aarti showed her an MMS of Shweta who was having sex with a bureaucrat. Aarti told Monica that to reach at the top, one has to do all these things.
SIT investigation reveals that in the name of the NGO and offering jobs to daughters of lower-middle-class families, Aarti and Shweta coaxed several college going girls and after a brainwash, introduced them into the honey trap racket.
In her statement, Monica alleged that on August 30, this year, Aarti and an aide Rupa, brought her to Indore in a luxury car wherein they stayed in the posh Infinity hotel.
The next evening a government engineer Harbhajan Singh, 60, was introduced to her. Later Monica had to spend the entire night with Harbhajan who had sex with her. Monica disclosed that Aarti made a video recording of the hotel room where she slept with Harbhajan.
Later, on the basis of the video clip, Shweta demanded Rs 3 crore from Harbhajan Singh. Monica was also threatened that if she revealed anything to her parents the obscene video would be uploaded on a website.
The first women SSP of Indore, Ruchi Vardhan Singh, a key member of the SIT, said that Shweta and Aarti eyed college girls and by persuading them to lead a modern hijinks life, they gradually pushed these young girls into the honey trap scam.
The girls were first shown the glamour and luxury of five-star culture and later were paid handsome amounts in lieu of honey trapping politicians and bureaucrats. Besides college going girls, over 40 call girls were also hired by Shweta to cater to a wide range of clients which included a former Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh.
It all started a week ago when MP police arrested two women and a driver on the complaint of an engineer Harbhajan Singh posted in Indore. A woman called Monika made his video having sex with her and tried to extort Rs 3 crore to keep her mouth shut. She was arrested while taking the first instalment of Rs 50 lakh from Singh. This led to the unearthing of the biggest honey-trap and blackmailing racket that is now threatening to reach the doorstep of many top bureaucrats and politicians.
A dozen top bureaucrats and eight former ministers of Madhya Pradesh are being investigated in the honeytrap-cum-extortion racket by the Special Investigation Team.
In the Vyapam scam, the biggest admission and recruitment scam in professional colleges that rocked MP six years ago, the CBI chargesheeted several officials and politicians and many of them even had to face jail. Starting from Gwalior, the scam unravelled into an inter-state admission racket involving Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. About 50 people related directly or indirectly to the Vyapam scandal died including a journalist who went to cover the scam in Jhabua. The CBI filed cases against 1,450 students and their family members. 3000 suspects were made accused and a large number of them went to jail.
Similarly, the honey-trap and blackmailing racket also seems to be spreading to other states – particularly Maharashtra, as is evident from the more than 200 mobile phone contacts uncovered in raids. The police have also gathered over 1,000 clips of sex chats, videos and audios from computers and mobile phones of the arrested women. The massive honey-trap plan, which targeted the high and the mighty, involved five women who used sex workers and young college girls, the police said.
“The unearthing of the honey-trap scam shows moral degradation of our society. This is Vyapam Part-2. Many wealthy politicians, bureaucrats, businessmen and people related to social media are associated with this scam,” said Congress spokesman K. K. Mishra and added that Chief Minister Kamal Nath has handed over the probe to IPS officer Sanjeev Shami. The masks will come off from many faces after the investigation is over, Mishra said.
BJP leader and former minister Narottam Mishra has demanded a CBI probe. BJP spokesman Deepak Gupta has demanded a free and fair probe but said that the government is trying to take the investigation in a different direction.
Senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh taunted Mishra and said that the BJP wants the scandal to be investigated by the CBI so that it can influence it.
Sources say many political leaders’ career will be cut short if a proper investigation is done by the SIT.
Both the BJP and the Congress have accused each other of involvement in the scandal.
The high-profile racket has also raised the political temperature after the allegation that the mastermind had once campaigned for the Bharatiya Janata Party, and the central BJP leadership asking for a detailed report from state leaders.
“A thorough and transparent probe should be conducted into the case. The state government wants to turn this criminal issue into a certain political way,” said BJP chief spokesman Deepak Vijayvargiya.
The Congress has released some photographs of an accused identifying her as a BJP leader who campaigned for the party in 2008 and 2013 Assembly polls.
Shweta Vijay Jain, the alleged mastermind of honey-trap and blackmailing racket, campaigned for a BJP candidate in the Khurai seat and even shared the stage, claimed former Congress MLA Arunodey Choubey and also released some photographs to support his claim.
The move followed the questions raised by former Chief Minister Digvijaya Singh against BJP General Secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya and Arvind Menon. “Was Shweta Jain secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM)? Did Vijayvargiya go to Sagar to inaugurate a shop owned by her or not? Was Shweta Jain a confidant of Menon? Who will answer these questions?”, asked Singh.
However, BJYM chief Jitu Jirati refuted the charges saying, “she was not the BJYM secretary, only a member of the 350-member executive council.” The Kamal Nath government should investigate and bring out names involved in the racket, said Jirati.
Meanwhile, the BJP high command has asked for a detailed report in the case. Though the state BJP leaders are not saying much on the issue, they have demanded a CBI probe.
However, the state government has handed over the probe to the Crime Investigation Department (CID).
Ever since the honey-trap racket was busted by the MP Police, leaders of both political parties have been accusing each other of involvement in the racket. (IANS)