Sex CD row: Rajesh Munat files complaint against Baghel, Vinod Verma

A day after senior journalist Vinod Verma was arrested from his home in Delhi NCR, for allegedly blackmailing a Chhattisgarh minister, the Chhattisgarh PWD Minister Rajesh Munat has now filed a complaint against state Congress Chief Bhupesh Baghel and senior journalist Vinod Verma for allegedly tarnishing his image through a “fake” sex CD.

A case was registered on Friday evening at the Civil Lines police station here against Baghel, Verma and others under section 67 (A) of the Information Technology Act following the minister's complaint,

Rajesh Munat, considered close to Chief Minister Raman Singh, was accompanied by state BJP president Dharam Lal Kaushik, his over half-a-dozen cabinet colleagues and other party leaders, while filing the complaint.

Talking to reporters on Friday, Munat had alleged that the CD in question was fake and urged the chief minister to order a probe to find the truth.

“The (sex) CD is fake. It is an attempt to malign my image,” he had said.

The minister further appealed to the chief minister and Kaushik to get the matter investigated from any agency.

The Congress leader Bhupesh Baghel had said on Mr Verma's arrest on Friday, “"This is an attack on democracy and we condemn this. They are targeting a journalist to protect their minister”.

The Civil Line police had also arrested two AAP supporters on Friday for allegedly blackening Munat's nameplate while protesting outside his official residence over the row.

Verma, who was arrested in connection with an extortion and blackmailing case from Ghaziabad by Chhattisgarh police on Friday, had claimed that he had a sex CD of the Chhattisgarh minister.

Police also claimed to have recovered 500 “porn” CDs, a pen drive and a laptop from Verma.

A Ghaziabad court had granted the Chhattisgarh Police the transit remand of Verma till October 30 and he was expected to reach Raipur on Saturday afternoon.

A freelance journalist, Vinod Verma has worked with the BBC Hindi service and has been Digital Editor at Hindi news portal Amar Ujala.

He was also part of a fact-finding team of the Editors Guild that travelled to Chhattisgarh last year to examine cases of intimidation of journalists.\

There was a widespread and bitter criticism of the way Vinod Verma was arrested at the wee hours on Friday.

The Press Council of India has called a meeting on Saturday to discuss issues arising out of Vinod Verma’s arrest in a high-handed manner by the Chhattisgarh police.

With inputs from PTI