MP Honey-Trapping Scandal: Amid Major Reshuffle, Govt Forms New Probe Team for 2nd Time in a Week

Bhopal: In a week’s span, the Madhya Pradesh government has dissolved the special investigation team (SIT) formed to probe the high-profile honey-trapping scandal for the second time.

In a major reshuffle, the Kamal Nath government appointed Special DG (cyber cell) Rajendra Kumar as the new head of the SIT, while Additional Director General of Police (cybercrime) Milind Kanishkar was made a member of the panel. Indore Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Ruchi Vardhan Mishra would continue to probe the case as the third member of the team.

On Monday, Nath had summoned DGP VK Singh and Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) chief Sanjeev Shami, both of whom were in charge of the SIT. The trio were given charge a day after the government had formed a team under Deputy Inspector General (Criminal Investigation Department) D Sriniwas Verma. The new team formed on Tuesday has been authorised to seek services of other police officers.

The development happened close on the heels of reports of a feud between DGP VK Singh and DG Purushottam Sharma. Sharma is said to be unhappy with talks of him renting a flat in Ghaziabad in the capacity of special task force chief and the DGP serving him a notice over the same. Media reports had tried to come up with links of the flat with the honey-trapping scandal that has shaken the state’s political and bureaucratic circles.

As the issue started grabbing headlines in local media, the chief minister decided to remove Sharma from his post and put him in charge of the Directorate of Public Prosecution.

Earlier in the day, five women who were accused of running the honey-trapping and blackmailing ring were remanded in judicial custody till October 14 by a local court here.

The racket was busted by Indore police after an engineer of the Indore Municipal Corporation approached police with a complaint of being blackmailed by a gang with intimate video clips. Members of the racket are said to have lured several politicians, bureaucrats and government engineers in the past and extorted huge sums of money from them.