Court orders in-camera hearing
The Indore bench of Madhya Pradesh high court has ordered in-camera hearing of the case relating to the infamous honey trap and blackmailing scandal in which several bureaucrats and politicians in the state were found to be involved.
The court’s directive comes in the wake of a prayer by the state advocate general Purushaindra Kaurav seeking to hold in-camera proceedings in the case.
The division bench of Justice S C Sharma and Justice Vivek Russia set August 13 as the next date for hearing in the case, while hearing the case on Thursday. The special investigation team (SIT) constituted by the state government to probe the sensational issue submitted its status report on it in three sealed envelopes before the court.
The status report contained video statements of the accused and the witnesses in the case, copy of hard disks and electronic materials seized, and names of persons that cropped up during investigation into the scandal.
While pleading for incamera hearing of the case, the advocate general said several people were found to be in conversations with the accused during the investigation.
But, conversations between them cannot be a crime and whether some crime has taken place or not, is needed to be probed and therefore, their names should not be made public, he argued. Five women and a man were arrested in connection with the high profile honey trap and blackmailing scandal that was busted in the state in September 2019.