EXSCRIBE HELD FOR ‘EXTORTION BID’ ON CH’GARH MINISTER
GHAZIABAD/RAIPUR : The Chhattisgarh Police arrested a former BBC journalist, Vinod Verma, from his Ghaziabad residence early Friday morning for allegedly trying to blackmail a Chhattisgarh minister with a sex CD.
Verma, who was arrested barely 12 hours after a complaint was lodged in Chhattisgarh capital Raipur by the BJP’s state working committee member Prakash Bajaj, has been booked under sections 384 and 507 of the Indian penal code (IPC) for extortion and intimidation.
Verma has rubbished the police’s claims that he had a sex CD.
“Someone gave me a 1 minute 31 seconds clip on a pen drive on October 24 and as a back-up I saved it on my laptop… The police have planted the CD on me. It is a political conspiracy of framing me in a false case and arresting me since I am looking after the social media campaign of Congress Party in Chhattisgarh,” Vinod Verma told Hindustan Times. Rajesh Munat, Chhatisgarh PWD minister in the eye of the storm, said the video is fake.
“The sex CD is fake. I appeal to the CM to get this investigated from any agency. I condemn this,” a new agency quoted Munat as saying.
Verma is also a member of Editors Guild of India and had been writing about socio-economic and cultural affairs of Chhattisgarh.
Raipur’s inspector general of police, Pradeep Gupta told reporters at a press conference: “An FIR was registered on Thursday. The FIR did not name Vinod Verma as accused. But the CDs have been found in possession of Verma. We are obtaining his remand to bring him to Raipur.”
“Prakash Bajaj gave us a complaint claiming that someone called his landline number and threatened him to release a pornographic CD of his boss,” the inspector general said.
The call was traced to a shop in Delhi which was raided. Verma is said to have ordered the reprints of the CD, Gupta said. “We don’t know whether the call was made by Verma or someone else. It is a matter of further investigation,” Gupta said in the presser.